Monitoring and assessment of flood risk in lower Damodar basin of Bengal delta, India

Lipika Mandal

Lipika Mandal Department of Geography, Belda College, Belda, Paschim Medinipur- 721424, West Bengal, India

Keywords: Economic loss, flood risk, sorrow of Bengal, risk reduction

Abstract

The river Damodar is known as ‘sorrow of Bengal’ due to its flood ravages in entire Damodar valley caused much unhappiness and distress in lower Damodar region. The intense rainfall during monsoon and discharge from upland reservoir leads to severe flooding in various parts of the area in varying magnitude almost every year. The hydro-meteorological condition of the study area is dominated by monsoon confined to four months in a year. The damage due to flood in terms of economic loss and the probability of flood occurrences is used for assessing flood risk in the study area. This study analyses the risk from flood influencing Government authorities to adopt both structural in lower Damodar Basin, in Bengal Delta.The adopted structural measures in this area have not yielded sufficient results to mitigate the chronic flood problems. Therefore, some non-structural measures flood mitigation strategies are taken into consideration like flood forecasting, alternative cropping arrangements and capacity building through self-help-group. The main goal of the present study is to analyze the flood risk assessment,risk perception and risk reduction combined in the managerial adjustment made by the society to flood hazard in lower Damodar basin.

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