Impact of Landslides Induced by the 2018 Palu Earthquake on Flash Flood in Bangga River Basin, Sulawesi, Indonesia

High magnitude flash flood has occurred several times in some areas in Central Sulawesi Province after the 2018 Palu Earthquake, one of them is in the Bangga River, Sigi Regency, Indonesia. It has caused massive impacts such as damaging agricultural and plantation areas and submerging public facilities and infrastructure and even causing fatalities. The flood carries a variety of materials, especially high concentration sediments which are thought to originate from eroded soils due to landslides induced by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake. These materials are eroded and transported by the flow at the upstream watershed due to heavy rainfall. This study intends to investigate the potential of landslides, factors that trigger floods and increased flooding after the earthquake. This research was conducted by investigating the landslides potency based on field surveys and interpretation of the latest satellite imagery, analyzing the characteristics of rainfall as a trigger for flooding, and predicting the flood potency as the primary impact of these two factors. Rainfall-flood transformation was simulated with the HEC-HMS Model, one of the freeware semi-distributed models commonly used in hydrological analysis. The model input is the configuration of river networks generated from the National DEM (DEMNAS), hourly rainfall during floods and other watershed parameters such as land cover, soil types and river slope. The similar simulation was also carried out on the condition of the watershed before the earthquake. Based on the results of the analysis, It can be inferred that flash floods in the Bangga River are mainly caused by heavy rainfall with long duration and landslide areas in the upper watershed triggered by the 2018 Palu Earthquake with an area of approximately 10.8 km². The greatest depth of rainfall as a trigger for flooding is 30.4 mm with a duration of 8 hours. The results of the study also showed that landslides in the upper watershed could increase the peak flood by 33.33% from 118.56 m³/s to 158.08 m³/s for conditions before and after the earthquake.