FLOODS IN ALGERIA: ANALYZES AND STATISTICS

The effect of climate change in the world has directly contributed to the increase in the frequency of natural phenomena, including floods. Algeria has suffered from this phenomenon through human and material damage caused by this risk. The objective of this work is to analyze the flood frequency and the number of deaths in Algeria for the period 1969-2022. In this study, 191 events were counted, and 2098 deaths were recorded. The analysis results of the numbers of deaths showed that the period from 1969 to 2009 was characterized by the presence of devastating floods that left large numbers of victims, while during the period 2010 to 2022, it was characterized by the presence of fewer victims but with a large number of floods; the highest number was recorded in 2015, with 14 floods. The absence of storm drains sometimes and its inability to evacuate stormwater, urban expansion and construction at the edges of wadis (major bed) mainly contribute to increasing the risk of flooding. For the period 2010-2022, the most significant number of deaths and flood frequency were recorded in August, September and October, which could be explained by the high temperatures during the summer, which increase the impermeability of the soil and thus increase the risk of floods. The distribution of the number of deaths and the flood frequency by province during this period showed that Djelfa, M'sila, Tamanrasset, Tiaret, Batna, Oran and Medea were most vulnerable to flooding. This work can assist local and national managers in obtaining an overview of the distribution of floods in Algeria and making decisions to mitigate the risk of this phenomenon.