Guwahati: India's 11 districts, majority being in Assam, are at a "very high" dual risk of flood and drought, according to a climate risk assessment study by Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, in collaboration with IIT Mandi and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP), Bengaluru.
Districts facing this double risk include Patna in Bihar, Alappuzha in Kerala, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, South Salmara-Mankachar, and Golaghat in Assam, Kendrapara in Odisha, and Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal.
The report, "District-Level Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using IPCC Framework",which was released by IIT-Guwahati on Friday,advocates for a multi-scale, sector-specific approach to climate risk assessment and continuous capacity building at the local and regional levels. It underscores the need for forward-looking strategies to tackle compound and emerging climate risks effectively.
The report advocates for a multi-scale, sector-specific approach to climate risk assessment and continuous capacity building at the local and regional levels. It underscores the need for forward-looking strategies to tackle compound and emerging climate risks effectively.
This study goes beyond hazard analysis and mapping and aims to understand exposure and vulnerability characteristics and the interplay of the three components of risk hazard, exposure and vulnerability), resulting in differential impacts.
The report states that Alappuzha is flood-prone and was declared ‘drought-hit' by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority in 2018 while the five districts in Assam are susceptible to floods due to their proximity to the Brahmaputra river and positive rainfall anomalies during the monsoon in some places. "However, these districts have experienced droughts in the last few decades due to erratic rainfall, especially in Aug and Sept," the report states.
West Bengal's Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur experienced flooding and a decreasing trend in annual and monsoon precipitation in specific locations,
Patna experiences localised intense rainfall events leading to floods, while long dry spells were recorded in July 2023. Likewise, in Kendrapara, flood and drought events have increased due to highly variable rainfall, high water deficit, and frequent rainfall failure, the report states with references to earlier studies.
The study divides the flood risk arising at the intersection of flood hazard, exposure, and vulnerability into five categories—very high (51 districts), high (118 districts), medium (216 districts), low (205 districts), and very low (108 districts).
"Of the 51 districts in the ‘vry hgh' risk category, 24 are in Assam, 14 in West Bengal, and the remainder in Manipur, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Kerala," the report states.
According to the report's drought risk assessment, 91 districts are in very high category, 187 in high , 186 in medium, 165 in low and 79 in deficient categories.
"More than 90% of districts in the Very High category (83 out of 91) are located in Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra," the report adds.
The study suggests that understanding risk at the nexus of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability is crucial, because it reveals that high hazard proneness alone does not equate to high risk rather it is the interaction with exposure and vulnerability that triggers risk and determines its extent.
"Flood and drought risk assessment highlights the need to go beyond environmental factors leading to these two events, since social, economic, and political factors shape vulnerabilities and resilience. While mitigating hazards is crucial in the long run, enhancing adaptive capacity in the short and medium term is vital to shield communities from climate-related hazards. Integrating human-centric and interdisciplinary interventions into flood and drought risk assessment facilitates the development of holistic, inclusive strategies fostering sustainable development and bolstering community resilience against climate change," the report underlines.
Guwahati: India's 11 districts, majority being in Assam, are at a "very high" dual risk of flood and drought, according to a climate risk assessment study by Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, in collaboration with IIT Mandi and the Centre for Study of Science, Technology, and Policy (CSTEP), Bengaluru.
Districts facing this double risk include Patna in Bihar, Alappuzha in Kerala, Charaideo, Dibrugarh, Sibsagar, South Salmara-Mankachar, and Golaghat in Assam, Kendrapara in Odisha, and Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur in West Bengal.
The report, "District-Level Climate Risk Assessment for India: Mapping Flood and Drought Risks Using IPCC Framework",which was released by IIT-Guwahati on Friday,advocates for a multi-scale, sector-specific approach to climate risk assessment and continuous capacity building at the local and regional levels. It underscores the need for forward-looking strategies to tackle compound and emerging climate risks effectively.
The report advocates for a multi-scale, sector-specific approach to climate risk assessment and continuous capacity building at the local and regional levels. It underscores the need for forward-looking strategies to tackle compound and emerging climate risks effectively.
This study goes beyond hazard analysis and mapping and aims to understand exposure and vulnerability characteristics and the interplay of the three components of risk hazard, exposure and vulnerability), resulting in differential impacts.
The report states that Alappuzha is flood-prone and was declared ‘drought-hit' by the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority in 2018 while the five districts in Assam are susceptible to floods due to their proximity to the Brahmaputra river and positive rainfall anomalies during the monsoon in some places. "However, these districts have experienced droughts in the last few decades due to erratic rainfall, especially in Aug and Sept," the report states.
West Bengal's Murshidabad, Nadia, and Uttar Dinajpur experienced flooding and a decreasing trend in annual and monsoon precipitation in specific locations,
Patna experiences localised intense rainfall events leading to floods, while long dry spells were recorded in July 2023. Likewise, in Kendrapara, flood and drought events have increased due to highly variable rainfall, high water deficit, and frequent rainfall failure, the report states with references to earlier studies.
The study divides the flood risk arising at the intersection of flood hazard, exposure, and vulnerability into five categories—very high (51 districts), high (118 districts), medium (216 districts), low (205 districts), and very low (108 districts).
"Of the 51 districts in the ‘vry hgh' risk category, 24 are in Assam, 14 in West Bengal, and the remainder in Manipur, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Kerala," the report states.
According to the report's drought risk assessment, 91 districts are in very high category, 187 in high , 186 in medium, 165 in low and 79 in deficient categories.
"More than 90% of districts in the Very High category (83 out of 91) are located in Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra," the report adds.
The study suggests that understanding risk at the nexus of hazard, exposure, and vulnerability is crucial, because it reveals that high hazard proneness alone does not equate to high risk rather it is the interaction with exposure and vulnerability that triggers risk and determines its extent.
"Flood and drought risk assessment highlights the need to go beyond environmental factors leading to these two events, since social, economic, and political factors shape vulnerabilities and resilience. While mitigating hazards is crucial in the long run, enhancing adaptive capacity in the short and medium term is vital to shield communities from climate-related hazards. Integrating human-centric and interdisciplinary interventions into flood and drought risk assessment facilitates the development of holistic, inclusive strategies fostering sustainable development and bolstering community resilience against climate change," the report underlines.