Flooding hazard assessment at Tulancingo (Hidalgo, Mexico)

Abstract

In recent decades, the Tulancingo municipality (Mexico), has been affected by numerous extreme weather phenomena that caused heavy flooding events with severe damage to property and people. Most of the weather phenomena placed several dams under hydrologic risk. The hurricane ‘Dean’, in 2007, led to the overflow of the dam ‘La Esperanza’, generating inundations that reached levels of 1 m in Tulancingo. Mexico does not have a specific regulation that establishes critical thresholds for the construction of flooding hazard maps. With the aim to provide a tool for the flooding hazard assessment, we performed a numerical study of inundation waterdepths by means of the IBER software. The study is based on the construction of different inundation scenarios that are based on the hydrologic study of ‘La Esperanza’ dam's basin, associated to regional precipitation and different return periods. Inundation waterdepths, flow velocity, and land use were used to construct flooding hazard maps. We calculated the occurrence probability of the considered inundation events. The hazard maps presented here and the evaluation of the flooding likelihood can support long‐term planning that would help minimise the impact of such events in Tulancingo.