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The present study aims to evaluate the effect of climate change on the flood hazard potential in the Kelantan River Basin using current and future scenarios.

The intensity-duration-frequency (IDF) was used to estimate the current 50- and 100-year return period 24-h design rainfall, and the climate change factor (CCF) was used to compute the future design rainfall. The CCF was calculated from the rainfall projections of two global climate models, CGCM1 and CCSM3, with different pre-processing steps applied to each. The IDF data were used in the rainfall-runoff-inundation model to simulate current and future flood inundation scenarios.

The estimated CCF values demonstrate a contrast, whereby each station had a CCF value greater than one for CGCM1, while some stations had a CCF value of less than one for CCSM3. Therefore, CGCM1 projected an aggravation and CCSM3 a reduction of flood hazard for future scenarios. The study reveals that topography plays an essential role in calculating the CCF.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study to examine flood projections in the Kelantan River Basin. It is, therefore, hoped that these results could benefit local managers and authorities by enabling them to make informed decisions regarding flood risk mitigation in a climate change scenario.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a geospatial approach for buildings flood vulnerability assessment using an indicator-based method (IBM) to support flood risk assessment and mapping of physical elements at risk in Kota Bharu District, Kelantan, Malaysia.

The study developed an indicator-based approach to undertake physical flood vulnerability assessment of buildings. The approach takes into consideration flood hazard intensity, building characteristics and structures surrounding the environment as factors that influence flood vulnerability. The aggregation of the total flood vulnerability index is carried out in a geographic information system (GIS) environment.

The results provide a spatial representation of buildings flood vulnerability index in Kota Bharu Malaysia, and the degree of expected vulnerability is expressed on a scale between 0 to 1 (low damage to total damage). Mapping flood vulnerability index of buildings should be considered in future flood mitigation and evacuation planning.

Unlike other indicator-based methods (IBMs) developed for physical flood vulnerability assessment, in the current study, hazard intensity has been considered and incorporated in the physical flood vulnerability model.