This study analyzes the characteristics of land use/land cover change in Jordan's Irbid governorate, 1984-2018, and predicts future land use/land cover for 2030 and 2050 using a cellular automata-Markov model. The results inform planners and decision makers of past and current spatial dynamics of land use/land cover change and predicted urban expansion, for a better understanding and successful planning. Satellite images of Landsat 5-thematic mapper and Landsat 8 operational land imager for the years 1984, 1994, 2004, 2015 and 2018 were used to explore the characteristics of land use/land cover for this study. The results indicate that the built-up area expanded by 386.9% during the study period and predict further expansion by 19.5% and 64.6% from 2015 to 2030 and 2050 respectively. The areas around the central and eastern parts of the governorate are predicted to have significant expansion of the built-up area by these dates, which should be taken into consideration in future plans. Land use/land cover change and urban expansion in Irbid are primarily caused by the high rate of population growth rate as a direct result of receiving large numbers of immigrants from Syria and Palestine in addition to the natural increase of population and other socio-economic changes. (C) 2020 GJESM. All rights reserved.

Floods are a widespread natural disaster that occur in most areas of the world, except for the polar regions. To minimize the damage caused by floods, effective management strategies and policies must be implemented. Petra and Wadi Musa areas are prone to floods, which happen every 2–3 years and result in significant harm to both lives and properties. To address this issue, a composite hazard and vulnerability index is commonly utilized to evaluate flood risk and guide policy formation for flood risk reduction. These tools are efficient and cost-effective in generating accurate results. Accordingly, the present study aims to determine the morphological and hydrometeorological parameters that affect flash floods in Petra catchment area and to identify high-risk zones using GIS, hydrological, and analytical hierarchy (AHP) modeling. Nine factors, including Elevation (E), Landuse/Landcover LULC, Slope (S), Drainage density (DD), Flood Control Points (FCP) and Rainfall intensity (RI), which make up the six risk indices, and Population Density (PD), Cropland (C), and Transportation (Tr), which make up the three vulnerability indices, were evaluated both individually and in combination using AHP in ArcGIS 10.8.2 software. These parameters were classified as hazard and vulnerability indicators, and a final flood map was generated. The map indicated that approximately 37% of the total area in Petra catchment is at high or very high risk of flooding, necessitating significant attention from governmental agencies and decision-makers for flood risk mitigation. The AHP method proposed in this study is an accurate tool for flood mapping that can be easily applied to other regions in Jordan to manage and prevent flood hazards.