Floods are a natural phenomenon that has always been and will pose a threat to people’s life and health, their property and the environment. Total elimination of the flood is impossible, but the current state of knowledge enables the use of the available tools in order to reduce the scale of these threats. The aim of the study is to develop a methodology of identification of the areas of hindered flow of water, located in the immediate vicinity of rivers. The proposed methodology is based on a study of the land cover. The developed algorithm of land cover spatial data processing for the local flood risk mapping implements GIS tools. Verification of the developed method was carried out on the example of selected rivers in Poland, only one of which is covered by the plans of flood risk management and causes periodic floodings.