FLOOD AND ITS IMPACTS: -

Origin of the word flood stems from the old English word Flōd, that is related to
the dutch word vloed and German Flut all of which means “to flow”. Flood is the
overflow of water beyond a normal level that submerges adjoining land areas
which are usually dry. Floods are termed as disasters when submergence in the
adjoining areas affects human beings or animals with associated loss.

Flood is a hydro-meteorological phenomenon having widespread occurrence

across the globe with varied severity and dimensions. Many of the disaster reports
have highlighted the impacts of flood with another high-profile disaster like earthquake
and declares that flood incidences in the world are nearly eight times more than that of
earthquakes and the number of people affected by floods is nearly 12 times more.
There are different perceptions of flood for different stakeholders. For common people,
it means devastation, destructions, damage, starvation, loss of lives, damage to
properties and infrastructures, etc. Those living in urban areas may treat this
phenomenon as disruption in their normal functioning of society. The government
machinery and policy planners treat this situation as a factor of retardation in
developmental planning with additional overburden on economy and additional
expenditure on rescue, relief, rehabilitation, mitigation, etc.
The International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (1995) has defined
“flood” as “relatively high flow in a river markedly higher than the usual”. The
World Meteorological Organization (WMO)/UNESCO International Glossary of
Hydrology (WMO 1974) defined flood as “rise, usually brief in the water level of a
stream or water body to a peak from which the water level recedes at a slower
rate” and “relatively high flows as measured by stage height or discharge.”

TYPES OF FLOODS: -

Floods are classified in various ways depending upon the nature,

severity, and sources of inundation-
Riverine flooding occurs due to various reasons but primarily due to heavy
precipitation or glacial melt with resultant runoff. The increased discharge in river
channels with decreasing carrying capacities leads to overflow causing inundation
in the adjoining low-lying areas. Flash flooding is an unprecedented situation that
occurs in hilly regions and sloping lands where torrential heavy precipitation,
thunderstorm, or cloud burst commonly occurred without any prior warning. This
sometimes creates huge loss of lives and damage to properties.
Urban flooding occurs in regions, where developmental planning has not been
in tune with the geo-morphological, ecological, and environmental set up, that
results in the increased vulnerability of urban areas. Many urban
agglomerations in India are suffering from the problem of flooding even after
moderate rainfall. The situation aggravates when rainwater mix up with drain
water causing additional problems including spread of epidemics.
Coastal flooding occurs due to a number of reasons like cyclones and
associated storm surge, high tides, tsunami, etc., wherein the low-lying areas
in coastal tracts are inundated, as a result of which losses occur on a larger
scale. In addition, salinity increases in the coastal groundwater and wells.

Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (GLOF) occurs in the downstream of glacial regions,
where glaciers holding large quantities of water suddenly release them due to
melting of ice jam. Glacial outburst is one of the prime reasons of flash floods in
some of the Himalayan Rivers. Cloud Burst Flooding is the manifestation of
climate change and hydrological imbalance that primarily occurs in the form of
sudden heavy rainfall. Cyclonic circulations in monsoon may also lead to cloud
burst. Cyclone and storm surge flooding mainly occurs in coastal areas due to
rainstorms associated with low-pressure systems. Movement of cyclonic storms in
quick succession leads to severe flooding, especially in low-lying coastal areas.

WHAT AFFECTS FLOODS: -

Floods are affected by many factors which include: Extreme rainfall; Construction of
dams; Rivers behavior and embankments. The other significant reasons include
congestion in the drainage channels due to roads, railways, canals, the haphazard growth
of industrial and urban establishments may also create flood in a given location. Lack of
forests (or deforestation), local water systems, landslides, soil erosion, destruction and/or
creation of natural dams, earthquakes, glaciers, sea tides and climate change are some of
the factors aggravating of creating flood situation in the country. The flood protection in
one area could also result in the floods of other areas. For example, construction of
embankments in few areas can increase flood occurrences downstream or upstream.
Embankments often act as flood transfer mechanisms as they transfer floods from a
given area to their downstream areas. The floods that occur in a given area due to breach
of embankments therefore are different to floods in the absence of embankments. During
embankment overtopping, the floods are usually sudden, with greater speed, can have
increased quantity of sand and could inundate for a longer time as compared floods to
during the absence of embankments.
Natural dams created by landslides or Glacial Lakes and their outbursts/
overflow may lead to a large quantity of water flowing in the streams
quickly leading to flash floods. In the Himalayan region, such natural
dams/ glacial lake overflows during the rainy season could also be
aggravated by multiple landslides due to decreased stability of soil.

EVOLUTION OF FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT: -

Earliest civilization regarded floods as uncontrollable and therefore established their
critical infrastructures on highlands. Settlements were built on the artificial mounds. A
system of flood early warning was developed and flood-sensitive land use planning
approaches were adopted. As the demand for food increased and the need for greater
agricultural production realized, fertile floodplains were used for better farm produce
and people began residing in the flood plains making their permanent settlements.
 In due course of time, flood was treated as a challenge rather than
inconvenience. Engineering solutions like dykes and other control measures began
taking shape. Attempts were also made to “deal with floods” through structural
protection and diversion of flood flow, but flood damages continued to rise. Thus the
need of paradigm shift emerged from adopting both structural and non-structural
mitigation measures, thus the concept of Flood Risk Management emerged. In recent
years, the flood risk management has continued to evolve into adaptive measures to
manage flood risk, keeping in mind the ecosystem services and the necessity to look
beyond flood management to coastal or integrated basin watershed management.

Desire to control flood

flows and defend
against floods

Desire to use
floodplains

Willingness to Live
with Floods

Figure:1: Evolution and development off Flood management.

FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT: -

Flood disaster refers to the occurrence of a catastrophic flood that brings about
adverse impact to humans, animals and the economy. Flood Risk of a particular
geographic area or a community refers to the possible consequences of all flood
combinations in that particular area. Flood risk management denotes the effort
taken by various agencies in managing the risk of floods and the process of
reducing the adverse impacts of the flood events (disaster).

Flood Risk has two main components:

1) Probability of the occurrence of inundation taking into consideration
the intervening mechanisms like levees, floodwalls etc.
2) Impact/ Consequences that reflects the vulnerability (or the potential
to experience harm) and the exposure (quantifying the number of
structures/ people/ area that could be exposed to the flood event)
In order to have an effective flood risk management in place, there is a need to adopt
Flood Risk Management Strategies, that consist of the following components:
Flood Risk Prevention aims to decrease consequences of flood event by
decreasing exposure of property and people by measures that discourage
or prohibit development in flood prone/ high flood risk areas. The focus of
this strategy is to “keep people away from water” (Raadgever, et al., 2016)
by restricting the construction of buildings in flood prone areas.
Flood Defense mechanism includes measures to decrease probability
of flooding incidents. The measures could be structural or a blend of
structural and non-structural measures such as dykes, embankments,
or increasing capacity of existing water channels, increasing up-stream
water retention and focusing on “keeping water away from people”.
Flood Risk Mitigation mechanisms decrease the magnitude or
severity of impacts through measures in the vulnerable areas that
includes flood zonation, regulations for flood proof buildings etc.
Flood Preparation and Response measures involve the development of
early warning systems, flood disaster management and response plans
and effective preparedness and utilization of resources to respond to
floods to alleviate suffering during the flood event (disaster)
Flood Recovery includes the reconstruction activities, compensation of
losses through public or private insurance schemes integrating flood
risk prevention, defense and mitigation into the activities.

Flood risk Management involves various processes in the four facets of Disaster
Management. In the mitigation stage, measures like assessment of flood risk,
incorporating flood risk in land use planning, planning and constructing measures
like levees, embankments, reservoirs etc. and adopting nonstructural measures
(flood zonation) for flood prevention and enhancing the natural water retaining
capacity of the flood plains/ urban area can be undertaken. The preparedness
activities include the strengthening of communities to deal the emergent situations
of floods as well as behavioral changes to adhere to flood zones as well as
awareness generation towards Do’s and Don’ts during floods. The response
activities include undertaking rescue and relief activities to alleviate sufferings of
flood affected communities. The recovery after flood incident must ensure resilient
reconstruction and planning for budgeting reconstruction activities.
 • Precautionary Land use
• Natural Retention of
water
• Technical Flood
Prevention
• Buidling precautionary
measures
• Risk Analysis
• Provision of risk

• Rebuilidng
• Reconstruction
aid

Figure:2: Flood Risk Management Adapted from (SECOM).

CHARACTERISTICS OF BETTER FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT

1) Monitor, Review and Adapt -Flood risk management activities are

implemented in such a way that new knowledge is incorporated and the
capacity addition and infrastructure/ strategies have scope for modification.
2) Understand whole system Behavior and societal goals- so that the development in
the geographical area and the possible changes in land use/ land planning patterns
are considered in a participatory method for setting short-term and long-term goals
3) Use knowledge of risk and uncertainty to prioritize strategies and
activities, and ensuring that investments are proportionate to the intended
societal risk reduction with structured evaluation process
4) Implement the portfolio of activities and institutions to deliver objectives
to reduce flood risk and innovative strategies are planned and
implemented in order to achieve flood risk reduction.

It is also essential that a proper system must be in place to analyze the

effectiveness of any intervention planned.
 For example, Embankments remain the main structural risk reduction technique.
Without embankments, the floodwater may spread over a larger area and sediments
build up over time, but stay more or less constant beyond a certain time. However, in
the case of embankments, population may settle close to the embankment due to the
perception of safety under the structures. Further, the embankment needs continuous
maintenance including dredging and repair. In sediment-laden rivers, sediment build
up would be significant and would need to be raised over time on a regular basis. The
sediment also rapidly builds up within the embankment and raises water levels within
the embankment above the altitude of the surrounding land. Any breach in this case
would result in significant potential energy getting converted into kinetic energy
increasing the speed of the water discharge due to breach.

Figure:3: Schematic of embankments in Sediment Laden Rivers.

Sometimes dam itself may cause disasters especially due to sudden release of high
quantity of water. Therefore, development and disaster management both must be
utilized and visualized to understand and work towards flood risk management.
FLOODS IN INDIA: -

In the entire Indian subcontinent, the flood gains the status of disaster, when normal
channels of rivers are breached or flow in excess of their carrying capacity. Flood is a
recurrent phenomenon in India that normally starts with the onset of monsoon;
however, due to localized hydro-meteorological aberrations, specific flooding occurs in
the localized areas. The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
(UNISDR) Report 2015 observed that out of the average annual loss of 9.8 billion USD
in India, about 7.4 billion USD are accounted by the damage caused by floods.
Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA) constituted in India to assess the flood situation in the
country has listed the flowing situations for flooding:
Streams flowing in excess of the transporting
capacity Backing up of water in tributaries
Heavy rainfall
Ice jams or landslides blocking stream
courses Heavy localized rainfall
Cyclones and typhoons

Out of the total geographical area of 329 million hectares, about 40 million hectares is
liable to floods in India as estimated by RBA in 1980. Subsequently, the 11th five-year
plan working group has compiled the area liable to flood as 45.64 million hectares. It is
estimated that about 25 out of 36 states and union territories are flood prone in the
country. The areas stretching north to south from the extra peninsular regions to the
tip of the peninsula and from extreme desert regions of the west to the east coastal
regions and northeastern regions are all prone to floods in varying magnitude and
nature. There are about 22 major river basins in India, out of which four major river
basins are typically known as flood-prone basins:

1. Brahmaputra and Barak basin

2. Ganga basin
3. North West River basins
4. Central India and Deccan river basins

The Brahmaputra basin covering northeastern states, northern part of West Bengal,
and Sikkim is affected by severe and recurrent floods. The entire catchment area of
this basin receives heavy rainfall from June to September. The frequently occurring
earthquakes and landslides in hills upset the flow regime of rivers causing imbalance
in flow dynamics. In addition, spilling of rivers, drainage congestion and tendency of
some of the rivers to change courses also cause flooding. In Assam and Tripura,
flooding primarily occurs due to inundation by spilling of Brahmaputra and tributaries
as well as bank erosion along the Brahmaputra
FLOOD MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES: –
Flood as a disaster has long been a matter of concern for policy planners in India
as it brings benefit as well as losses for communities. The annual floods in the
Indo-gangetic plains maintain the fertility of soil by depositing silt containing
different minerals carried out from different parts of the mountains. They bring
additional water for irrigation, thereby contributing to enhanced fertility in the
region, whereas the same flood in larger dimension or in unprecedented situation
seriously affects communities living in the floodplain or low-lying areas. In other
parts of the country, the flooding occurs due to heavy torrential rainfall combined
with poor drainage, that causes disasters in the society resulting in the loss of
lives populations and infrastructures. The recent examples are Uttarakhand flood
(2013) and J&K flood (2014). In order to prevent this hydro-meteorological
phenomenon attaining the status of disasters, there is a need to adopt a
comprehensive, integrated, and scientific approach.
Flood disaster management approach is essentially required in India because it affects
the normal functioning of societies or communities, but above all, the optimal
utilization of land and water resources is of vital importance to bring prosperity in the
country. On the account of unique and varied geo-climatic condition right from the
extra peninsula in the north to peninsular tip in the south and from Arunachal Pradesh
in the east to the extreme western Thar Desert, the nature and scope of flood risk
varies greatly; therefore, the risk management strategies and disaster management
plan during the flood disaster must address all the topographical, geographical, and
climatic conditions to effectively combat the potential threats. The “National Water
Policy” has suggested that there should be a master plan for flood control and
management, for each flood-prone basin. It is essential to promote watershed
management practices through water management, soil conservation, catchment area
development, etc. to reduce the intensity of floods. The systematic approach of flood
management and mitigation in India at the policy level was started by the Government
of India in the year 1954 after the unprecedented floods in different parts of the
country. A policy statement by the Ministry of Planning, Irrigation, and Power was
placed before the parliament under two separate categories – “floods in India
(problems and remedies)” and “the floods in the country.” The objective was to
suggest a comprehensive framework for the management of flood disasters in the
country. Since then, various committees have been constituted from time to time to
suggest recommendations, strategies, and policies on various flood management and
mitigation issues.
Though several good policy initiatives were taken by the government of India to minimize
the menace of floods in the country, the one which is of greater significance was the
constitution of Rashtriya Barh Ayog (RBA). In 1976, the government constituted RBA
under the chairmanship of Mr. Jaisukhlal Hathi, the then governor of Punjab/Haryana, to
look into the contemporary situation of floods in the country and to carry out in-depth
study of the long- term flood management approach. This was the most comprehensive
study of flood carried out by any committee since independence. It looked into various
flood problems and submitted its report in 1980 with 207 recommendations covering
almost all the aspects of flood management. However, the implementation of
recommendations by different states remained mostly under the slow pace. In order to
review the progress of implementation of
RBA, few committees were further constituted including an expert committee setup in
2001 by the Ministry of Water Resources under the chairmanship of Sri R. Rangachari.
The committee reviewed each of the recommendations of RBA and opined that its
implementation has been slow which requires more attention by the concerned
stakeholders. The committee further suggested 40 out of 207 recommendations to be
taken up on priority basis. In many of the recommendations listed in previous pages by
different committees/ commissions, it was strongly felt that practically it is not
possible to protect all areas against high flood and structural mitigation measures
alone cannot be considered as appropriate for flood management, there should be a
combination of both structural and nonstructural measures on flood mitigation, so that
overall losses could be minimized.
INDIAN RIVERINE FLOOD MANAGEMENT- GANGES AND
BRAHMAPUTRA: -

The case of flood management in the river Ganga and the Brahmaputra is complex
due to the geo-morphological set up of the two major basins. The water flows into
these two rivers from the Himalayan mountain ranges. This water basin consists of
a lot of sediments. In addition, the ongoing tectonic processes leading to seismic
activity make it difficult to undertake watershed management interventions.
Traditional soil conservation mechanisms like increase in forest cover becomes
difficult as the source of sediments are in the higher ranges, sometimes above the
tree line. The high rate of sedimentation also makes it difficult to utilize reservoirs
for capturing and storing sediments/ excess discharge of water and would require
sophisticated systems for downstream sediment flushing. In the downstream,
continued raising of embankments produce excess risk of overtopping due to
excess sedimentation. The force of water and the occurrence of silt, leads to
scouring of embankments and generally result in the breaching of embankments
well before the designed lifetime of the embankments. The geomorphological make
of the upstream also leads to occasional cloudburst that bring significant
downpour of rainfall in short durations which may lead to multiple landslides
thereby increasing the silt contents of flood waters.
CONCLUSION: -
Flood is the overflow of water beyond a normal level that submerges land areas which
are usually dry. Floods are affected by many factors apart from rainfall, dams, rivers,
and embankments. Earliest civilization regarded floods as uncontrollable and located
critical infrastructures on high land. In recent years, the flood risk management has
continued to evolve into adaptive measures to manage flood risk, keeping in mind the
ecosystem services and the necessity to look beyond flood management to coastal or
integrated basin watershed management. Flood risk management denotes the efforts
by various agencies in managing the flood risk and the process of reducing the
adverse impacts of the flood event (disaster). Flood Risk Management Strategies
consist of Flood Risk Prevention, Flood Defense mechanism, Flood Risk Mitigation,
Flood Preparation and Response, Flood Recovery.
Indian government has taken various steps towards flood risk
management through policy measures and institutional mechanisms.