Vol.:(0123456789) Natural Hazards https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-019-03571-x 1 3 ORIGINAL PAPER Vulnerability assessment for fash foods using GIS spatial modeling and remotely sensed data in El‑Arish City, North Sinai, Egypt Soha A. Mohamed 1  · Mohamed E. El‑Raey 1 Received: 21 December 2017 / Accepted: 5 January 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019 Abstract Egypt sufers from freshwater crisis, and the shortage is predicted to become severe by 2025. Egypt is exposed to fash foods, especially in Sinai governorate, causing rapid rises of water in a short amount of time and can trigger other catastrophic hazards associated with damage, danger to human life, properties and environment. Flash foods may be con- sidered a source of water that can be explored to meet the water shortage problem. In this study, a composite fash foods vulnerability index based on an integrated hydro-climatic and physical vulnerability component was created. The composite index was based on eight parameters including rainfall distribution, elevation and slope, fow direction, streams, geo- morphological features, soil type and land cover. The composite index was ranked into three categories: high, moderate and low. The index can help identify the weak and strong points to support the decision-making process concerned with water management as an essential prerequisite for Egypt sustainable development. The results revealed that the urban, vegetation cover, loamy sand, sand dunes, the low elevation and the fat areas are the most afected by the fash foods in EL-Arish City in Sinai governorate. 42% of Wadi El- Arish had low vulnerability, 45% moderate vulnerability and 13% high vulnerability. Keywords Flash foods · Vulnerability assessment · Composite Index · GIS · Remotely sensed · Multi-criteria analysis · Wadi El-Arish · Sinai · Egypt 1 Introduction There are major factors afecting Egypt’s water security such as the construction of Ethio- pian massive dam (Omran and Negm 2018) in addition to the increase in global tempera- tures and decreased precipitation levels due to climate changes (Elsaeed 2011). Climate changes and its consequences of heat waves as well as the dry climate of Egypt increase a * Soha A. Mohamed igsr.soha.ahmed@alexu.edu.eg Mohamed E. El-Raey melraey@gmail.com 1 University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt