Study on flood hazard zones in residential areas in Binjai City

Abstract The flooding phenomenon in Binjai City has become a significant issue affecting development welfare, particularly in settlement planning. This study aims to identify and map flood hazard zones using GIS and AHP methods. By collecting data related to land slope, soil type, elevation, rainfall, land cover, distance from rivers, and drainage density, this study assesses and prioritizes the most vulnerable areas to flooding, then maps them using GIS to produce a flood hazard zone map. The analysis shows that approximately 14,141.13 ha of residential areas are potentially affected, dominated by the moderate hazard category (53.04%), followed by high (17.38%), low (19.55%), very low (4.55%), and very high (5.48%). Binjai Kota District has the greatest exposure, particularly in Berngam, Setia, and Pekan Binjai, while Binjai Selatan also shows significant hazard in Rambung Barat and Tanah Merah. Therefore, the results of this study are expected to provide an important contribution to decision-making in regional planning that is safer and more adaptive to flood hazard.