Global S&T Development Trend Analysis Platform of Resources and Environment
| DOI | 10.1126/science.abe2962 |
| India needs an effective flood policy | |
| Yusuf Jameel; Mason Stahl; Shahryar Ahmad; Abhinaw Kumar; Gaëlle Perrier | |
| 2020-09-25 | |
| 发表期刊 | Science
 |
| 出版年 | 2020 |
| 英文摘要 | Several Indian states are currently suffering from devastating floods that have killed hundreds and rendered millions homeless ([ 1 ][1], [ 2 ][2]). Flooding in the state of Bihar has been a chronic problem for decades ([ 3 ][3]), but few concrete steps have been taken to effectively manage these deluges. For the past 50 years, the government policy in the Kosi River Basin—a river known for flooding—has been to build new embankments and reinforce old ones ([ 4 ][4]) without properly taking environmental and geomorphic factors into consideration. Himalayan rivers carry a tremendous amount of sediments, and the embankments severely constrict the river flow, resulting in massive siltation in the channel beds, which at some locations are now higher than the adjacent floodplains ([ 5 ][5]). The geomorphic transformation due to embankments has made flooding worse ([ 4 ][4]).
Climate change will result in even more destructive floods in the future ([ 6 ][6]). The Bihar government acknowledged this trend in their disaster management plan for 2015 to 2030 ([ 7 ][7]) yet has taken no concrete science-based steps to address the growing threat. This year, for example, the government blamed Nepal for the devastating floods ([ 8 ][8]), and the official mitigation policy remained centered on embankments ([ 9 ][9]).
It is imperative that the government adopt strategies grounded in robust science to minimize future flood damage. For example, reconnecting parts of the river to its historical floodplain could mitigate harm from flooding. Where substantial riverbed aggradation has occurred, silt should be removed from the channel to ensure that it is below the floodplain. Where appropriate, embankments should be removed or lowered to distribute flood water over a larger area. Remaining embankments should be set farther back from the river to provide additional areas to accommodate flooding as well as areas where water can be safely diverted from the main channel and into the former floodplain. This “room for the river” approach has been successful elsewhere ([ 10 ][10]). The project should be developed in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders, including those across state and international borders, and it should be designed to account for relevant risk factors such as the probability of high-magnitude floods and the future changes in precipitation, streamflow, population, land cover, and flood frequency and magnitude.
The recurring floods in Bihar in the past decades have been devastating. Bihar has lost 3% of its gross state domestic product due to flooding ([ 11 ][11]) and is among the poorest Indian states ([ 12 ][12]). India's most vulnerable people will suffer even more due to climate change if sustainable long-term strategies are not adopted with urgency. Implementing such a project would be challenging and expensive; an effective plan is likely to have substantial monetary costs and may require relocating large numbers of people away from floodplains. However, the benefits of such a project have been shown to outweigh the costs and challenges ([ 10 ][10]).
1. [↵][13]“Monsoons slam South Asia, displacing millions in Bangladesh and India,” The New York Times (2020).
2. [↵][14]“Bihar: Destroyed lives and submerged homes in flood-hit India,” BBC News (2020).
3. [↵][15]1. J. A. Rorabacher
, Econ. Polit. Wkly. 43, 45 (2008).
[OpenUrl][16]
4. [↵][17]1. R. Sinha,
2. G. V. Bapalu,
3. L. K. Singh,
4. B. Rath
, J. Indian Soc. Remote Sens. 36, 335 (2008).
[OpenUrl][18]
5. [↵][19]1. R. Sinha et al
., J. Hydrol. 570, 156 (2019).
[OpenUrl][20]
6. [↵][21]1. H. Ali,
2. P. Modi,
3. V. Mishra
, Weather Clim. Extrem. 25, 100212 (2019).
[OpenUrl][22]
7. [↵][23]Government of Bihar, “Roadmap for disaster risk reduction 2015–2030” (2015); |
| 领域 | 气候变化 ; 资源环境 |
| URL | 查看原文 |
| 引用统计 | |
| 文献类型 | 期刊论文 |
| 条目标识符 | http://119.78.100.173/C666/handle/2XK7JSWQ/296464 |
| 专题 | 气候变化 资源环境科学 |
| 推荐引用方式 GB/T 7714 | Yusuf Jameel,Mason Stahl,Shahryar Ahmad,et al. India needs an effective flood policy[J]. Science,2020. |
| APA | Yusuf Jameel,Mason Stahl,Shahryar Ahmad,Abhinaw Kumar,&Gaëlle Perrier.(2020).India needs an effective flood policy.Science. |
| MLA | Yusuf Jameel,et al."India needs an effective flood policy".Science (2020). |
| 条目包含的文件 | 条目无相关文件。 | |||||
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