Abstract
India suffers from a large variability of precipitation both spatially and temporally. It is generally known that though the average rainfall for the country is about 1160 mm, the highest anywhere in the world of a comparable size (Kumar et al., 2005), the spatial variability ranges from an average of 2800 mm for most of the north-eastern states, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and northern areas of West Bengal to about 300 mm in the western part of Rajasthan (http://www.rainwaterharvesting.org/urban/Rainfall.htm). Again, except for the States of Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and the southern peninsula, more than 75% of India’s annual rainfall is received during the southwest monsoon season, i.e., June through September (Jagannathan and Bhalme, 1973). An effect of this skewed distribution of rainfall is excess water for a region received during a short interval of time, leading to flooding of the surroundings, if not drained off suitably. The region may be small as an urban space, like cities or towns, for which an intense rainfall of even half a day may cause flooding, or larger areas like the over bank and floodplain areas of a river where the state of flooding may extend for several days due to continuous rainfall of a couple of days in the upper catchment. Examples of the former include flooding events in the cities of Kolkata and Mumbai, which occasionally get flooded due to drainage congestion aggravated primarily because of insufficient slopes of drainage channels and tidal influences at the outfalls. Examples of floodplain inundation are common for the rivers of the eastern and north-eastern states of the country, though a few others from the other parts of the country are in the news sometimes. In addition, rivers flowing through the hills often suffer from flash floods due to occasional cloud bursts and the coastal regions, especially in the eastern part of the country, is prone to flooding due to cyclonic storms either by the associated intense rainfall or of storm surge waves, or both.
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Sen, D. (2010). Flood Hazards in India and Management Strategies. In: Jha, M.K. (eds) Natural and Anthropogenic Disasters. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2498-5_7
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