Tag: floods, droughts and landslides and cyclones

Floods can have negative environmental consequences, such as soil erosion, release of pollutants and excess sediments into waterways and the ocean, dispersal of weed species, and negative impacts on fish and other aquatic life. Floods can also have positive environmental consequences, such as recharging groundwater systems, filling wetlands, moving useful nutrients around the landscape, and triggering breeding events (for example, of water birds).

Flood risk in new developments can be reduced by restricting the location of development (zonings) and placing controls (regulations) on development. In existing developed areas, risk can be reduced by modifying flood behaviour (for example, through dams, detention basins, levees, waterway modifications), property modification measures (for example, land filling, flood proofing, house raising, removing developments), and response modification measures (for example, upgrading flood evacuation routes, flood warnings, flood evacuation planning, flood education programs).

Flood warnings should provide information on what the threat is, what action should be taken, by whom and when. While it is desirable for flood warnings to be accurate, warnings are predictions about the future, so there is inevitably some uncertainty. Accuracy needs to be balanced with timeliness, to allow enough time for appropriate action. Warnings are most likely to reach different audiences and to be heeded if they come from multiple trusted sources.

In the future, climate change is likely to result in an increased chance of flash floods and coastal inundation. Australia’s growing population and urbanization are likely to place increased pressure on our waterways and to increase the chance of flooding in cities and the number of properties and people exposed to floodwaters.

The Probable Maximum Flood (PMF) is an estimate of the largest possible flood that could occur at a particular location, under the most severe meteorological and hydrological conditions as they are currently understood.

Approximately 12.5% of India's total geographical area is considered prone to floods. This is a standard statistic used in Indian disaster management studies.

The Ganga Basin gets flooded mostly in the northern part by its northern tributaries. The badly affected states of the Ganga basin are West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Besides the Ganga, rivers like Sharada, Rapti, Gandak and Ghaghra cause flood in eastern part of Uttar Pradesh. The Yamuna is famous for flooding Haryana and Delhi. Bihar experiences massive dangerous floods every year. River Burhi, Bagmati, Gandak, Kamla along with many small rivers contribute to that. In West Bengal, rivers like Mahananda, Bhagirathi, Damodar, Ajay etc. causes floods because of tidal effects and insufficient river channels.

The Damodar River is historically known as the Sorrow of Bengal due to its devastating floods in the West Bengal region. Other rivers like the Kosi are known as the Sorrow of Bihar.

Bihar is India's most flood-prone state, with 76% population in the North Bihar living under the recurring threat of flood devastation. Bihar makes up 16.5% of India's flood-affected area and 22.1% of India's flood affected population

In the absence of adequate rainfall, most part of Bihar including North Bihar which is prone to floods face drought situations. South and southwest Bihar are more vulnerable and often experiences severe drought situations. Districts of Munger, Nawada, Rohtas, Bhojpur, Aurangabad, and Gaya are the known drought-prone areas of the state.