Susceptibility to flood in the municipality of petit-goâve, Haiti

Abstract

Introduction : Haiti, one of the Caribbean countries, has a mountainous territory, made up of a geology with a strong volcanic influence and which is frequently hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and floods. Petit-Goâve is one of the cities subject to the phenom-enon of floods every rainy season. Objective. This study was carried out in the hydrographic basin of the river La Digue, the main one in the municipality, and aimed to elucidate the hydrogeomorphological aspects that condition the susceptibility to flooding in the basin. Method: Therefore, we had the presentation of the fundamental aspects of the hydrogeomorphology of the land based on the bibliographical research, the interpretation of a digital terrain model (MDT), satellite images and the morphometric analysis. Conclusion. Preliminary results, presented in the form of maps, show that the height differences controlled by important Knick points give great energy to the river system fed by large volumes of water during the hurricane period, which leads inexorably to the overflow of the larger bed in the lower course of the La River La Digue.