Indrajit Pal | Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) (original) (raw)
Papers by Indrajit Pal
Sustainability
The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is a subsidiary region of the Mekong River, with approximately 50 mi... more The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is a subsidiary region of the Mekong River, with approximately 50 million people directly dependent on the river for livelihood and economic activities. However, communities in the region are increasingly exposed to multiple hazards that have significant direct and indirect impacts on their livelihoods. To implement efficient risk management strategies, it is important to understand the interlinkages between the different dimensions and factors that influence livelihood security and resilience in such communities. Through a literature review and expert workshop, this paper studies the multi-hazard scenario and impacts in the LMB region and the interlinkages between livelihoods and resilience in the LMB communities. The paper consolidates these findings and proposes a localized assessment framework that can be used by stakeholders in decision-making process. Floods and droughts were identified as primary natural hazards, while a multi-hazard assessment hi...
Land
In July 2015, more than 100 landslides caused by Cyclone Komen resulted in damage to approximatel... more In July 2015, more than 100 landslides caused by Cyclone Komen resulted in damage to approximately 1000 buildings in the mountainous region of Hakha City, Myanmar. This study aimed to identify potential landslide susceptibility for newly developed resettlement areas in Hakha City before and after urbanization. The study evaluated landslide susceptibility through statistical modeling and compared the level of susceptibility before and after urbanization in the region. The information value model was used to predict landslide susceptibility before and after urbanization, using 10 parameter maps as independent variables and 1 landslide inventory map as the dependent variable. Four landslide types were identified in the study area: shallow earth slide, deep slide, earth slump, and debris flow. Susceptibility analyses were conducted separately for each type to better recognize the different aspects of landslide susceptibility in planned urban areas. By comparing the results of the suscep...
Water
Natural hazards early warning systems (EWS) are built on a solid technical and scientific foundat... more Natural hazards early warning systems (EWS) are built on a solid technical and scientific foundation. However, a significant focus must be on those at risk and a systems approach that considers all the key risk factors. A people-centered flood EWS has proved to be more successful at conveying risk messages and protecting lives during times of crisis. The present study intends to analyze the gender perspective of flood early warning systems in Pakistan by using four components of a people-centered approach. The data acquired from the different sources in this study (including institutional key informant interviews = 30 and community focus groups = 32) is analyzed using a paradigm of gender analysis. The findings regarding gender analysis revealed that there was a lack of participation from women in the risk assessment process, and the institutions did not pay enough attention to the conventional knowledge and views of women and men. In most cases, women were not given hazard alerts s...
Water
Satellite data shows that the Bhagirathi-Hugli River’s riverbank has faced severe erosion during ... more Satellite data shows that the Bhagirathi-Hugli River’s riverbank has faced severe erosion during the last decades (1990 to 2020), with the middle stretch of the river being more prone to erosion. This huge sediment load derived from upstream erosion is coming to the estuary. The suspended sediment concentration dynamics of the Hugli estuary were calculated using in-situ data and remote sensing reflectance by establishing a linear regression. A continuous huge sediment load is found in the estuarine water. The sediment concentration was higher pre-monsoon than post-monsoon as the region is highly influenced by monsoonal rainfall and runoff. The sediment concentration was also higher in the estuary’s southwestern section than in the northern part. The impact of this high sediment load contributes to the deposition. This depositional area assessment was performed using an object-based classification approach called Support Vector Machine utilizing Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix to cre...
Drought is one of the most frequent and widespread natural hazards in Tien Giang province of Viet... more Drought is one of the most frequent and widespread natural hazards in Tien Giang province of Vietnam, which is aggravating under the in uence of climate change. As agriculture is the primary economy of the province, it is crucial to understand the in uence of climate change on drought severity and how the local farmers perceive and adapt to climate change. Therefore, to examine the impacts of climate change on drought in the Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta, the present study used three General Circulation Models (GCMs)-ACCESS 1.3, CNRM-CM5 and MRI-CGCM3 under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. In addition, the study evaluated household-level adaptation strategies based on structured questionnaire-based household survey data and focuses group discussion. This study identi es that the drought will be getting more severe for the future in the province based on using three GCMs and two climate change scenarios. The estimated results of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed that there would be many potential extreme drought years between 2020-2050. The results from the questionnaires survey depicted that the household perception of drought is moderate in the Mekong Delta. The current adaptation measures are good enough to adapt to fair drought and can be improved to adapt to more potential extreme drought condition in the future. This study provides important insights for decision-makers to manage future drought situations in the Mekong region.
Sustainability
Mainstreaming flood risk reduction into spatial planning (MFRRSP) recognizes the urgent need for ... more Mainstreaming flood risk reduction into spatial planning (MFRRSP) recognizes the urgent need for sustainable human settlement planning. Despite official recognition of MFRRSP in Thailand, repetitive damage from floods demonstrates gaps in concept and implementation. This paper examines the transition and challenges of flood risk reduction (FRR) practices in the spatial planning (SP) of the Bangkok and Sing Buri provinces of Thailand. Content analysis through computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDS) and in-depth interviews provide the evidence for the study. Twenty-two codes under seven assessments were extracted from the MFRRSP guidelines of international organizations. It was found that FRR was more mainstream in Thailand’s SP. The code in the next Sing Buri and Bangkok Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) was mentioned in 202.06% and 112.70% of the existing CLUP. The assessment area that deserves more attention is FRR preparedness and stakeholder participation, whic...
2020 International Conference and Utility Exhibition on Energy, Environment and Climate Change (ICUE), 2020
Energy security is one of the key priorities of the United Nations' sustainable development a... more Energy security is one of the key priorities of the United Nations' sustainable development agenda of 2030. Limited studies have focused on accessibility, availability, and security of energy across the provinces of Vietnam using household data. The present study considers aims to fill this gap and by quantifying the level of electricity and cooking fuel consumption in Vietnam at the household level. The results of our analysis reveal that the rate and consumption of electricity as well as heating and cooking fuel use are significantly different across the geographical regions of Vietnam. Particularly, the Red River and Mekong River deltas have very high consumption of electricity. Following the same pattern, access to heating and cooking fuel is distributed mainly northern region near Hanoi and the southern region near Ho Chi Min City. These regions of River deltas have fertile plain land and high intensity of livelihood engagement, which accelerates the use of energy resources. The outcome is an integrated method for quantification of energy security initiatives that can be instigated on a number of spatial and institutional levels. This method can provide insights into the state of energy security in Vietnam, and can become an important tool in simultaneously evaluating energy development priorities worldwide.
The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim, 2022
Sustainable Development Goals Series, 2021
Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017
Flood and erosion in the State of Assam, India, is menacing and probably the most acute and uniqu... more Flood and erosion in the State of Assam, India, is menacing and probably the most acute and unique in the country. Every year due to successive waves of floods, most of the areas in the valley of Assam remain submerged for a considerable numbers of days. Regular flooding added with persistent erosion causing land loss of thousands of hectares resulting to hundreds of people landless virtually destabilize the socio-economic development of the state. It has been observed that every year, the mighty Brahmaputra River is eroding more than 2000 ha of land. Subsequent to the National Policy for Flood in 1954 by the Government of India, flood control activities in the State of Assam started taking place. As envisaged in the National Policy for Flood, the state could take short-term as well as long-term measures for flood mitigation, but to get the immediate relief to the flood-ravaged state, construction of embankments as short-term measures had been widely adopted. In the state as a whole, the total area eroded by Brahmaputra, Barak and their tributaries since 1954 is 3.86 lakh hectares, which constitute 7% of the total area of the state.
Drought Risk Management in South and South-East Asia, 2020
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 2021
The climate of India reflects the instability and variability of the monsoon in the tropical regi... more The climate of India reflects the instability and variability of the monsoon in the tropical regions of the country. Monsoon in India occurs annually, with variations in rainfall that adversely affect water resources, agriculture, and other regional conditions. The perception of the variability of the monsoon season is one of the critical problems in the field of atmospheric science. In the study area, the Subarnarekha river basin being non-perennial, exclusively depend on the monsoon to maintain its riverine flow. The variability and instability of the monsoon can significantly influence the hydrological parameters (erodibility and discharge) of this river basin. Therefore, it requires significant water resource management through the assessment of the hydrological processes. It is crucial to assess both the runoff response and soil loss in the drainage basin to evaluate the hydrological conditions of the drainage basin. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) is a hydrological model used in this study to simulate the discharge rate for runoff responses daily, monthly, and annual. A simulation of a similar kind has been carried out regarding the soil loss to estimate the amount of erosion before and after significant rainfall events in the study area. The study emphasizes the SWAT model and its efficacy in assessing water flow through ungauged channels or rivers. The present study showed that the SWAT model successfully characterized the role of the Subanarekha Basin's monsoon-driven hydrological processes leading to erosion.
Bangladesh is prone to various hydrometeorological hazards due to its geophysical location. The e... more Bangladesh is prone to various hydrometeorological hazards due to its geophysical location. The exposures and resulting impacts of these natural hazards are aggravated by persistent social, economic and environmental status. Compounded with the country’s current dependence on imported fossil fuels and other challenges, this study seeks to stimulate discussions around the complementarity of energy sector as well as its linkages with disaster risk governance and promote good governance in the sector that integrates energy policies, disaster risk governance and climate change impacts. The energy sector plays a critical role in all stages of the disaster management cycle; especially considering that all societal service systems rely on the energy sector for everyday activities, as well as for emergency response and recovery (e.g., telecommunications, health, and infrastructure). Addressing the resilience of energy systems as a component of disaster risk governance, and in response to cl...
Advances in Space Research, 2021
Abstract A short span of abnormal precipitation in the year 2018 has ravaged the southwestern sta... more Abstract A short span of abnormal precipitation in the year 2018 has ravaged the southwestern state of Kerala. It has resulted in widespread flooding and landslides with more than 400 casualties. The present study has implemented the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)-based Sentinel 1C band satellite data. The researchers have analyzed the remotely sensed data to examine the severely affected areas. The study area included Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Pathanamthitta districts. The daily and monthly precipitation data is acquired from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). During 2018, Kerala has experienced a severe escalation in the volume of rainfall from June onwards till September. The current study has analyzed the spatial and temporal variation in the extent of severe flooding in Kerala during the monsoon months of 2018. The south-central parts of Kerala are most severely impacted by flooding. The districts of Alappuzha and Kottayam were severely affected, followed by Thrissur and Pathanamthitta, moderate to low. The outcomes of this assessment would be helpful for risk-informed planning in the pre-disaster context and help in decision-making for response planning and early recovery.
Disaster Resilience and Sustainability, 2021
Abstract This chapter presents a conceptual approach to explore the linkage between natural hazar... more Abstract This chapter presents a conceptual approach to explore the linkage between natural hazards, insurance, and poverty. Specifically, it proposes a methodological and conceptual framework to assess the role of and quantify the effects of insurance on poverty outcomes as well as vulnerability to poverty in the presence of natural hazards. Two main hypotheses are introduced. The first hypothesis is that insurance alleviates worsening poverty outcomes in the aftermath of a natural hazard. In other words, this hypothesis refers to the ex-post role of insurance in poverty prevention as a social safety net. The second hypothesis is that insurance reduces vulnerability to poverty against natural hazards. It captures the ex-ante role of insurance prior to natural hazards. The chapter begins with a critical review of the concepts that express the relationship among natural hazards, insurance, and poverty. It then proposes several econometric models to examine the quantifiable effects of insurance on poverty.
Brahmaputra is an important river for irrigation and transportation in the state of Assam, India.... more Brahmaputra is an important river for irrigation and transportation in the state of Assam, India. About 2,900 km long and with an average depth of 38 m mighty river is prone to catastrophic flooding in spring when the Himalayan snows melt. The average discharge of the river is about 19,300 cubic metres per second and floods can reach over 100,000 cubic metres per second. It is a classic example of a braided river and is highly susceptible to channel migration and avulsion. It is also one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore. The river drains the Himalaya east of the Indo-Nepal border, southerncentral portion of the Tibetan plateau above the Ganges basin, south-eastern portion of Tibet, the Patkai-Bum hills, the northern slopes of the Meghalaya hills, the Assam plains and the northern portion of Bangladesh. The basin, especially south of Tibet is characterized by high level of rainfall. Present study is an account of the devastation caused by the flooding in the B...
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2021
Amphan was the strongest cyclone to hit the Indian coast nearly two decades after the Odisha Supe... more Amphan was the strongest cyclone to hit the Indian coast nearly two decades after the Odisha Super Cyclone of 1999. The cyclone affected many countries of the Indian Ocean region and shadowed its peril on several Indian states. The eastern state of West Bengal was worst affected by the cyclone, and it caused severe damages to lives and property. Several districts of West Bengal were severely affected by the cyclone;millions of people were displaced;physical and social infrastructure were affected. The cyclone had hit the state when the world was already reeling under the pressure of COVID-19. The impact of Amphan was magnified several folds due to the COVID-19 situation in the state. This paper presents the impact of Amphan on West Bengal and exemplifies the steps taken by response agencies in managing this mega-emergency situation. The institutional mechanism and frameworks for managing disasters in India are also discussed in the context of state-level functions. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science
Catastrophic natural disasters have served as reminders of the connection between fragile governm... more Catastrophic natural disasters have served as reminders of the connection between fragile governments and human losses. Developing economies are impacted most from natural as well as anthropogenic hazards. For example, the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) claimed 227,898 lives, primarily in three politically fragmented countries with developing economies: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India; and the 2010 Haiti earthquake affected more than 3 million people and killed between 46,190 and 316,000. According to EM-DAT, the cumulative number of global disaster deaths over the past 30 years was 1,677,000, with an annual average of 54,082 deaths. According to Swiss reinsurance companies, the average global natural disaster insurance loss for the last 10 years (2009–2018) was 67billion,andglobalinsurancelossesaccountedfor0.0967 billion, and global insurance losses accounted for 0.09% of global GDP on average. Over the past decade, “natural” disasters have caused more than 780,000 fatalities and destroyed physical properties worth a minimum of 67billion,andglobalinsurancelossesaccountedfor0.09960...
Pandemic Risk, Response, and Resilience
Sustainability
The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is a subsidiary region of the Mekong River, with approximately 50 mi... more The Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) is a subsidiary region of the Mekong River, with approximately 50 million people directly dependent on the river for livelihood and economic activities. However, communities in the region are increasingly exposed to multiple hazards that have significant direct and indirect impacts on their livelihoods. To implement efficient risk management strategies, it is important to understand the interlinkages between the different dimensions and factors that influence livelihood security and resilience in such communities. Through a literature review and expert workshop, this paper studies the multi-hazard scenario and impacts in the LMB region and the interlinkages between livelihoods and resilience in the LMB communities. The paper consolidates these findings and proposes a localized assessment framework that can be used by stakeholders in decision-making process. Floods and droughts were identified as primary natural hazards, while a multi-hazard assessment hi...
Land
In July 2015, more than 100 landslides caused by Cyclone Komen resulted in damage to approximatel... more In July 2015, more than 100 landslides caused by Cyclone Komen resulted in damage to approximately 1000 buildings in the mountainous region of Hakha City, Myanmar. This study aimed to identify potential landslide susceptibility for newly developed resettlement areas in Hakha City before and after urbanization. The study evaluated landslide susceptibility through statistical modeling and compared the level of susceptibility before and after urbanization in the region. The information value model was used to predict landslide susceptibility before and after urbanization, using 10 parameter maps as independent variables and 1 landslide inventory map as the dependent variable. Four landslide types were identified in the study area: shallow earth slide, deep slide, earth slump, and debris flow. Susceptibility analyses were conducted separately for each type to better recognize the different aspects of landslide susceptibility in planned urban areas. By comparing the results of the suscep...
Water
Natural hazards early warning systems (EWS) are built on a solid technical and scientific foundat... more Natural hazards early warning systems (EWS) are built on a solid technical and scientific foundation. However, a significant focus must be on those at risk and a systems approach that considers all the key risk factors. A people-centered flood EWS has proved to be more successful at conveying risk messages and protecting lives during times of crisis. The present study intends to analyze the gender perspective of flood early warning systems in Pakistan by using four components of a people-centered approach. The data acquired from the different sources in this study (including institutional key informant interviews = 30 and community focus groups = 32) is analyzed using a paradigm of gender analysis. The findings regarding gender analysis revealed that there was a lack of participation from women in the risk assessment process, and the institutions did not pay enough attention to the conventional knowledge and views of women and men. In most cases, women were not given hazard alerts s...
Water
Satellite data shows that the Bhagirathi-Hugli River’s riverbank has faced severe erosion during ... more Satellite data shows that the Bhagirathi-Hugli River’s riverbank has faced severe erosion during the last decades (1990 to 2020), with the middle stretch of the river being more prone to erosion. This huge sediment load derived from upstream erosion is coming to the estuary. The suspended sediment concentration dynamics of the Hugli estuary were calculated using in-situ data and remote sensing reflectance by establishing a linear regression. A continuous huge sediment load is found in the estuarine water. The sediment concentration was higher pre-monsoon than post-monsoon as the region is highly influenced by monsoonal rainfall and runoff. The sediment concentration was also higher in the estuary’s southwestern section than in the northern part. The impact of this high sediment load contributes to the deposition. This depositional area assessment was performed using an object-based classification approach called Support Vector Machine utilizing Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix to cre...
Drought is one of the most frequent and widespread natural hazards in Tien Giang province of Viet... more Drought is one of the most frequent and widespread natural hazards in Tien Giang province of Vietnam, which is aggravating under the in uence of climate change. As agriculture is the primary economy of the province, it is crucial to understand the in uence of climate change on drought severity and how the local farmers perceive and adapt to climate change. Therefore, to examine the impacts of climate change on drought in the Tien Giang province in the Mekong Delta, the present study used three General Circulation Models (GCMs)-ACCESS 1.3, CNRM-CM5 and MRI-CGCM3 under two Representative Concentration Pathways (RCPs) 4.5 and 8.5 scenarios. In addition, the study evaluated household-level adaptation strategies based on structured questionnaire-based household survey data and focuses group discussion. This study identi es that the drought will be getting more severe for the future in the province based on using three GCMs and two climate change scenarios. The estimated results of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) showed that there would be many potential extreme drought years between 2020-2050. The results from the questionnaires survey depicted that the household perception of drought is moderate in the Mekong Delta. The current adaptation measures are good enough to adapt to fair drought and can be improved to adapt to more potential extreme drought condition in the future. This study provides important insights for decision-makers to manage future drought situations in the Mekong region.
Sustainability
Mainstreaming flood risk reduction into spatial planning (MFRRSP) recognizes the urgent need for ... more Mainstreaming flood risk reduction into spatial planning (MFRRSP) recognizes the urgent need for sustainable human settlement planning. Despite official recognition of MFRRSP in Thailand, repetitive damage from floods demonstrates gaps in concept and implementation. This paper examines the transition and challenges of flood risk reduction (FRR) practices in the spatial planning (SP) of the Bangkok and Sing Buri provinces of Thailand. Content analysis through computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDS) and in-depth interviews provide the evidence for the study. Twenty-two codes under seven assessments were extracted from the MFRRSP guidelines of international organizations. It was found that FRR was more mainstream in Thailand’s SP. The code in the next Sing Buri and Bangkok Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP) was mentioned in 202.06% and 112.70% of the existing CLUP. The assessment area that deserves more attention is FRR preparedness and stakeholder participation, whic...
2020 International Conference and Utility Exhibition on Energy, Environment and Climate Change (ICUE), 2020
Energy security is one of the key priorities of the United Nations' sustainable development a... more Energy security is one of the key priorities of the United Nations' sustainable development agenda of 2030. Limited studies have focused on accessibility, availability, and security of energy across the provinces of Vietnam using household data. The present study considers aims to fill this gap and by quantifying the level of electricity and cooking fuel consumption in Vietnam at the household level. The results of our analysis reveal that the rate and consumption of electricity as well as heating and cooking fuel use are significantly different across the geographical regions of Vietnam. Particularly, the Red River and Mekong River deltas have very high consumption of electricity. Following the same pattern, access to heating and cooking fuel is distributed mainly northern region near Hanoi and the southern region near Ho Chi Min City. These regions of River deltas have fertile plain land and high intensity of livelihood engagement, which accelerates the use of energy resources. The outcome is an integrated method for quantification of energy security initiatives that can be instigated on a number of spatial and institutional levels. This method can provide insights into the state of energy security in Vietnam, and can become an important tool in simultaneously evaluating energy development priorities worldwide.
The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Cities and Landscapes in the Pacific Rim, 2022
Sustainable Development Goals Series, 2021
Disaster Risk Reduction, 2017
Flood and erosion in the State of Assam, India, is menacing and probably the most acute and uniqu... more Flood and erosion in the State of Assam, India, is menacing and probably the most acute and unique in the country. Every year due to successive waves of floods, most of the areas in the valley of Assam remain submerged for a considerable numbers of days. Regular flooding added with persistent erosion causing land loss of thousands of hectares resulting to hundreds of people landless virtually destabilize the socio-economic development of the state. It has been observed that every year, the mighty Brahmaputra River is eroding more than 2000 ha of land. Subsequent to the National Policy for Flood in 1954 by the Government of India, flood control activities in the State of Assam started taking place. As envisaged in the National Policy for Flood, the state could take short-term as well as long-term measures for flood mitigation, but to get the immediate relief to the flood-ravaged state, construction of embankments as short-term measures had been widely adopted. In the state as a whole, the total area eroded by Brahmaputra, Barak and their tributaries since 1954 is 3.86 lakh hectares, which constitute 7% of the total area of the state.
Drought Risk Management in South and South-East Asia, 2020
Modeling Earth Systems and Environment, 2021
The climate of India reflects the instability and variability of the monsoon in the tropical regi... more The climate of India reflects the instability and variability of the monsoon in the tropical regions of the country. Monsoon in India occurs annually, with variations in rainfall that adversely affect water resources, agriculture, and other regional conditions. The perception of the variability of the monsoon season is one of the critical problems in the field of atmospheric science. In the study area, the Subarnarekha river basin being non-perennial, exclusively depend on the monsoon to maintain its riverine flow. The variability and instability of the monsoon can significantly influence the hydrological parameters (erodibility and discharge) of this river basin. Therefore, it requires significant water resource management through the assessment of the hydrological processes. It is crucial to assess both the runoff response and soil loss in the drainage basin to evaluate the hydrological conditions of the drainage basin. The soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) is a hydrological model used in this study to simulate the discharge rate for runoff responses daily, monthly, and annual. A simulation of a similar kind has been carried out regarding the soil loss to estimate the amount of erosion before and after significant rainfall events in the study area. The study emphasizes the SWAT model and its efficacy in assessing water flow through ungauged channels or rivers. The present study showed that the SWAT model successfully characterized the role of the Subanarekha Basin's monsoon-driven hydrological processes leading to erosion.
Bangladesh is prone to various hydrometeorological hazards due to its geophysical location. The e... more Bangladesh is prone to various hydrometeorological hazards due to its geophysical location. The exposures and resulting impacts of these natural hazards are aggravated by persistent social, economic and environmental status. Compounded with the country’s current dependence on imported fossil fuels and other challenges, this study seeks to stimulate discussions around the complementarity of energy sector as well as its linkages with disaster risk governance and promote good governance in the sector that integrates energy policies, disaster risk governance and climate change impacts. The energy sector plays a critical role in all stages of the disaster management cycle; especially considering that all societal service systems rely on the energy sector for everyday activities, as well as for emergency response and recovery (e.g., telecommunications, health, and infrastructure). Addressing the resilience of energy systems as a component of disaster risk governance, and in response to cl...
Advances in Space Research, 2021
Abstract A short span of abnormal precipitation in the year 2018 has ravaged the southwestern sta... more Abstract A short span of abnormal precipitation in the year 2018 has ravaged the southwestern state of Kerala. It has resulted in widespread flooding and landslides with more than 400 casualties. The present study has implemented the SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar)-based Sentinel 1C band satellite data. The researchers have analyzed the remotely sensed data to examine the severely affected areas. The study area included Alappuzha, Kottayam, Thrissur, and Pathanamthitta districts. The daily and monthly precipitation data is acquired from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). During 2018, Kerala has experienced a severe escalation in the volume of rainfall from June onwards till September. The current study has analyzed the spatial and temporal variation in the extent of severe flooding in Kerala during the monsoon months of 2018. The south-central parts of Kerala are most severely impacted by flooding. The districts of Alappuzha and Kottayam were severely affected, followed by Thrissur and Pathanamthitta, moderate to low. The outcomes of this assessment would be helpful for risk-informed planning in the pre-disaster context and help in decision-making for response planning and early recovery.
Disaster Resilience and Sustainability, 2021
Abstract This chapter presents a conceptual approach to explore the linkage between natural hazar... more Abstract This chapter presents a conceptual approach to explore the linkage between natural hazards, insurance, and poverty. Specifically, it proposes a methodological and conceptual framework to assess the role of and quantify the effects of insurance on poverty outcomes as well as vulnerability to poverty in the presence of natural hazards. Two main hypotheses are introduced. The first hypothesis is that insurance alleviates worsening poverty outcomes in the aftermath of a natural hazard. In other words, this hypothesis refers to the ex-post role of insurance in poverty prevention as a social safety net. The second hypothesis is that insurance reduces vulnerability to poverty against natural hazards. It captures the ex-ante role of insurance prior to natural hazards. The chapter begins with a critical review of the concepts that express the relationship among natural hazards, insurance, and poverty. It then proposes several econometric models to examine the quantifiable effects of insurance on poverty.
Brahmaputra is an important river for irrigation and transportation in the state of Assam, India.... more Brahmaputra is an important river for irrigation and transportation in the state of Assam, India. About 2,900 km long and with an average depth of 38 m mighty river is prone to catastrophic flooding in spring when the Himalayan snows melt. The average discharge of the river is about 19,300 cubic metres per second and floods can reach over 100,000 cubic metres per second. It is a classic example of a braided river and is highly susceptible to channel migration and avulsion. It is also one of the few rivers in the world that exhibit a tidal bore. The river drains the Himalaya east of the Indo-Nepal border, southerncentral portion of the Tibetan plateau above the Ganges basin, south-eastern portion of Tibet, the Patkai-Bum hills, the northern slopes of the Meghalaya hills, the Assam plains and the northern portion of Bangladesh. The basin, especially south of Tibet is characterized by high level of rainfall. Present study is an account of the devastation caused by the flooding in the B...
Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2021
Amphan was the strongest cyclone to hit the Indian coast nearly two decades after the Odisha Supe... more Amphan was the strongest cyclone to hit the Indian coast nearly two decades after the Odisha Super Cyclone of 1999. The cyclone affected many countries of the Indian Ocean region and shadowed its peril on several Indian states. The eastern state of West Bengal was worst affected by the cyclone, and it caused severe damages to lives and property. Several districts of West Bengal were severely affected by the cyclone;millions of people were displaced;physical and social infrastructure were affected. The cyclone had hit the state when the world was already reeling under the pressure of COVID-19. The impact of Amphan was magnified several folds due to the COVID-19 situation in the state. This paper presents the impact of Amphan on West Bengal and exemplifies the steps taken by response agencies in managing this mega-emergency situation. The institutional mechanism and frameworks for managing disasters in India are also discussed in the context of state-level functions. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science
Catastrophic natural disasters have served as reminders of the connection between fragile governm... more Catastrophic natural disasters have served as reminders of the connection between fragile governments and human losses. Developing economies are impacted most from natural as well as anthropogenic hazards. For example, the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) claimed 227,898 lives, primarily in three politically fragmented countries with developing economies: Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India; and the 2010 Haiti earthquake affected more than 3 million people and killed between 46,190 and 316,000. According to EM-DAT, the cumulative number of global disaster deaths over the past 30 years was 1,677,000, with an annual average of 54,082 deaths. According to Swiss reinsurance companies, the average global natural disaster insurance loss for the last 10 years (2009–2018) was 67billion,andglobalinsurancelossesaccountedfor0.0967 billion, and global insurance losses accounted for 0.09% of global GDP on average. Over the past decade, “natural” disasters have caused more than 780,000 fatalities and destroyed physical properties worth a minimum of 67billion,andglobalinsurancelossesaccountedfor0.09960...
Pandemic Risk, Response, and Resilience