ABSTRACT
The importance of managing land and water together for bringing about resilient human settlements is being increasingly articulated and recognized. This paper is an attempt at laying out an ecological planning method for flood risk reduction through green infrastructure delineation (GI). The primary concern is the slowing down of the water cycle through a network of green and blue areas that captures rain where it falls. The importance of green infrastructure as appropriately allocated land-uses in flood plain areas that are meant for inundation during high rainfall months is an important aspect in water sensitive spatial planning. For this process, GIS based LULCC analysis and the resulting effects in hydrological response is an integral step. An integrated multi criteria decision analysis that takes into account meteorology, geology, geomorphology, ground water and surface water hydrology, soils and land-use land-cover patterns is being adopted in the study. Physiographic division of the river basin is considered the primary organizing factor for this ecological planning framework developed. The method is demonstrated using a typical watershed in Kerala that has witnessed widespread loss of lives and property during the 2018 and 2019 floods.
