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Lecture 3: Floods
PLAN 471: Natural Hazards and Disaster Management

Prepared by:
Meher Afjun Faria
Lecturer, DURP,BUET.

Acknowledgement:
Dr. Ishrat Islam
Professor, DURP, BUET.

2 Introduction to Flood

 Floods are extreme events/actions of nature, in which the flow of

water cannot be contained within the banks and/or retention
areas. As a result it over flows into areas with human settlements/
infrastructure facilities/ economic activities.
 Floods become a natural disaster when such areas become
exposed to the hazard without adequate warning and/or
without means of taking defensive or evasive actions and the
community suffers loss of life, assets, livelihood.

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3 Introduction to Flood

4 Introduction to Flood

Absolute population exposure to 15cm or more flood

inundation risk at the country level (millions) The proportion of the world’s population exposed to
floods (2000-2015)

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5 Introduction to Flood

6 Introduction to Flood

The three outlets (red star): Hardinge

Bridge, Bahadurabad and Bhairab
Bazar for the Ganges, Brahmaputra and
Meghna river basins, respectively.

The Ganges–Brahmaputra–Meghna (GBM) river basins of South Asia.

The most downstream country, Bangladesh, occupies only 8% of GBM basin area with alomost 100% of basin
streamflow flowing through the country and discharging into the Bay of Bengal.

Source: Masood et al., 2015; Akbor et al., 2014

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7 Introduction to Flood

 Major Floods in
Bangladesh -

8 Causes of Flood

 Prolonged and Intense

Rainfall
 Cyclone, Storm Surge
 Ice melt
 Landslide
 Urbanization
 Unplanned flood control
measures
 Climate change
 Deforestation

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9 Types of Flood

10 Types of Flood

 Fluvial Flood or Riverine Floods or

Monsoon Flood
 Riverine floods occur when a river
overflows its natural stream bed
due to heavy rains. The very high
rainfall intensities and duration in
the monsoon season will often
generates water volumes in excess
of the local drainage capacity.
 Causes: Rainfall, snow and ice
melt, landslides, failure of control
works.

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11 Types of Flood
 Flash floods
 Flash floods occur as a result of
rapid accumulation and release
of runoff waters from rain storms
in mountainous areas. These are
characterized by a sharp rise
followed by relatively rapid
recession soon after rainfall
causing high flow velocities that
damage properties, crops.
 Causes: Heavy rainfall, cloud Flash flood in Sylhet, 2022

bursts, landslides, failure of control

works.

12 Types of Flood

 Storm Surge Flood

 Flooding by high tidal waves
caused by tropical cyclone
 Tidal Flood
 Flooding by tides
 Fluvio-tidal Flood
(Compound Flooding)
 Flooding by fluvial flow and
tide

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13 Types of Flood
 Local rain flood or urban
floods
 The very high rainfall
intensities and duration in
the monsoon season often
generates water volumes
in excess of the local
drainage capacity
(drainage network factors
in urban area), causing
local floods.

14 Types of Flood

Source: Lecture Slides, Dr. Anisul Haque IWFM, BUET

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15 Types of Flood

Synchronization of flood peaks of major river systems

Source: Lecture Slides, Dr. Anisul Haque IWFM, BUET

16 Floods and Human beings

 Human being play an important role in the genesis as well as spread
of floods.
 Indiscriminate deforestation
 Unscientific agricultural practices (excessive irrigation)
 Disturbances along the natural drainage channels
 Failure of reservoir embankments or dams
 Ponding of drainage water behind flood embankments
 Drainage problems resulting from rising of river bed level due to
siltation
 Colonization of floodplains and riverplains

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17 Major Effects of Floods

 Primary effects
 Physical damage- of bridges, cars, buildings, sewer systems, roadways, canals
and any other type of structure.
 Casualties- People and livestock die due to drowning.
 Secondary effects
 Water supplies- Contamination of water
 Diseases- Spread of water-borne diseases
 Crops and food supplies- Shortage of food crops can be caused due to loss of
entire harvest
 Trees - Non-tolerant species can die from suffocation
 Tertiary/long-term effects
 Economic- Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding
costs, food shortage leads to price increase

18 Benefits of Flood
 People living with flood -
 Over thousands of years people in Bangal learned how to live with
rivers and floods.
 High lands were chosen to construct dwelling and lowlands for
farming.
 Where high lands are not found the process was “dig-elevate-dwell”.
This is how numerous ponds, dighis and khals came into being.
 The principle of “dig-elevate-dwell” not only preserves but also can
enhance the space for river over flow.
 Cropping pattern also adjusted to the deltaic condition.

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19 Benefits of Flood

 People living with flood -

 Amazing varieties of bona Aman which can grow as long as twenty
feet and can grow up to a foot per 24 hour. Ropa Aman and Boro
variety suit the deltaic condition of the country.
 For transportation also our ancestors they dependent on water
ways. They used both man made and natural khals.

 Flood is the part of natural cycle -

 As Bangladesh is a very low-lying country with 70% of its land less
than 1m above sea level and 80% of it floodplains

20 Benefits of Flood

 Advantages of River Inundation -

 Periodic flooding was essential in the well being of the ancient
communities along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers, the Nile River, the
Indus River, the Ganges and the Yellow River.
 Flooding makes soli more fertile and provides nutrients in which it is
deficient.
 River inundation helps preserving moisture content of soil and helps
growing dry season crops.
 Flooding makes agriculture possible with less amount of irrigation.

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21 Benefits of Flood

 Advantages of River Inundation -

 River inundation helps to maintain the fish habitat.
 River inundation recharges all surface water bodies.
 Inundation also helps in recharging underground water aquifers.
 Soil deposited by floodwaters prevents erosion and helps maintain
the elevation of landmasses above sea level.
 Improves navigation of transport.

22 Flood Management
 In western countries, rivers prone to floods are often carefully managed.
Defenses such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent rivers
from bursting their banks.
 Coastal flooding has been addressed in Europe with coastal defenses, such as
sea walls.
 London is protected from flooding by a huge mechanical barrier across the
River Thames, which is raised when the water level reaches a certain point.
 The largest and most elaborate flood defenses can be found in the
Netherlands, where they are referred to as Delta Works with the Oosterschelde
dam as its crowning achievement. These works were built in response to the
North Sea flood of 1953 of the southwestern part of the Netherlands.

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23 Flood Management
 The New Orleans Metropolitan Area, 35% of which sits below sea level, is
protected by hundreds of miles of levees and flood gates. This system
failed catastrophically during Hurricane Katrina, resulting in the
inundation of approximately 50% of the Metropolitan area, to a depth of
20 feet in coastal areas.
 As a flood prevention tool, the Federal Government of the United States
offered to buy out flood-prone properties in the United States after the
1993 flood across the Midwest. In partnership with the state, it bought
25,000 properties which they converted into wetlands. These wetlands act
as a sponge in storms and in 1995, when the floods returned, the
government didn't have to expend resources in those areas.

24 Flood Mitigation/ Control Measures

 Flood protection system is generally a mix of structural and non-

structural measures and a site specific means seems to be a
proper solution.
 Both structural and non-structural measures represent the cornerstones
of the flood management strategy.
 The measures is taken to reduce discharge or stage ( e.g., reservoir,
watershed management and afforestation, channel improvement), or
reduce existing damage susceptibility (e.g., levee, floodproofing, flood
warning), or reduce future damage susceptibility (e.g., land use and
construction regulation, acquisition).

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25 Structural Measures
 Involves physical construction or physical entity to reduce or avoid possible
impacts of hazards
 Range from heavily engineered interventions, such as dams, dykes and
reservoirs, to more natural approaches like wetlands and river restauration
 Common structural measures –
 Dams and reservoirs
 Embankments (levees, dykes)
 Floodwalls and seawalls
 Detention and retention basins
 Bypass and diversion channels
 Channelization
 River corridor rehabilitation and restoration

26 Structural Measures

Dams and reservoirs

Embankments

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27 Structural Measures

Floodwalls

Retention basins

Seawalls

Detention basins

28 Structural Measures

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29 Structural Measures

Channelization River rehabilitation and restoration

(Revitalization of Old Buriganga Channel)

30 Structural Measures

Embankment approach to flood control –

 Flood control approach is dominated by the embankment approach.
 Cordon off areas in order to protect from flood.
 Such approach is flood prevention.
 Embankments have been constructed along many cities and towns like,
Rajshahi, Sirajganj, Chandpur.
 After 1988 flood this strategy got a boost.
 DND (Dhaka-Narayanganj-Demra) project is a miniature example
how Dhaka is planning to be cordoned.
 During 1988 flood DND was in the serious threat of failure.

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31 Structural Measures
Embankment approach to flood control –
 Construction of embankment gave a false sense of free from flood and
people constructed their homes with having high plinth level.
 Area was cutoff from natural system and solely dependent on pumps and
there is lack of sufficient number of pumps.
 Embankments lead to a situation of conflict. Cordoned areas Vs open
areas.
 There are many instances where angry people have tried to tear down
embankment.
 Chinese had to ultimately dynamite many of their dykes and
embankments in order to find space for overflow water and save some of
the cities from deluge.

32 Structural Measures

Tearing down Klamath dams: The world’s largest Damned by dams? Infrastructure and conflict
dam demolition - CalMatters (lse.ac.uk)

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33 Non-structural Measures

 Not involving physical construction which use knowledge, practice

or agreement to reduce disaster risks and impacts, in particular
through policies and laws, public awareness raising, training and
education.
 Some important non-structural measures –
 Flood forecasting and warning
 Land use regulations
 Flood proofing
 Emergency preparedness, response and recovery

34 Non-structural Measures

 Flood forecasting and warning -

 most widely accepted and has been used since the latter half of the
20th century
 supplements almost all other structural as well as non-structural
measures
 Land use regulations -
 Flood risk maps form an essential prerequisite for land use regulations.
 prohibition of certain activities and new development in high flood risk
areas
 in the form of land use laws, subdivision regulations, building codes,
development policies and plans etc.

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35 Non-structural Measures

 Flood proofing -
 a combination of long-term, non-structural and minor structural
measures, as well as emergency actions
 provision of quick drainage facilities such as the cleaning of
primary and secondary drainage channels and clogged cross-
drainage works before the onset of the flooding season
 removing goods, equipment and harmful industrial, agricultural
and domestic chemicals, beyond the area subject to flooding or
out of contact with floodwaters, protection of sewerage plants

36 Non-structural Measures

 Emergency preparedness, response and recovery -

 The awareness of the community at risk of flooding should be raised
and maintained, with a clear understanding of their role in responding
to emergencies appropriately.
 Information on evacuation routes as well as identified emergency
shelters and other actions should be available, to all concerned, well in
advance.
 If not planned in advance, debris may end up in drainage channels,
ponds, wetlands or rivers, impacting the natural ecosystems.
 Recovery of drinking water supply, tube wells, sewerage systems and
health infrastructure should be the priority.

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37 Non-structural Measures
Shelter
Volunteers Management
and Donation Debris
Management Management

Public
Information Emergency Communication
Response Management
Management
Measure
Search and Medical
Rescue Care
Coordination
Food and
Supply Financial
Management Management

38 Non-structural Measures

 Emergency preparedness, response and recovery -

 The following participants may be expected to take part -

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39 Non-structural Measures
 Flood hazard mapping
 Land-use regulation / planning for
 Damage
vulnerable area
assessment and
 Development and utilization of
social
disaster management plan, SOD
compensation
etc.
 Evaluation of Pre-
 Disaster prevention education,
Disaster activity
awareness program and trainings
and feedback
on disaster management
 Disaster Prediction & Early
warning
 Emergency aid /
 Community-base disaster
immediate
prevention, voluntary disaster
assistance
prevention organization and
 Initial damage
evacuation drill
assessment

40

URBAN FLOOD

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41 Understanding Urban Flood Hazards

 Flood hazards in built environments have to be seen as the
consequence of natural and man-made factors.
Meteorological Hydrological factors Human factors aggravating Natural flood
Factors hazards
• Rainfall • Soil moisture level • Land-use changes (e.g. surface sealing due to
• Cyclonic • Groundwater level prior to storm urbanization, deforestation) increase run-off
storms • Natural surface infiltration rate and may be sedimentation
• Small-scale • Presence of impervious cover • Occupation of the flood plain obstructing
storms • Channel cross-sectional shape and flows
• Temperature roughness • Inefficiency or non-maintenance of
• Snowfall and • Presence or absence of over bank flow, infrastructure
snowmelt channel network • Too efficient drainage of upstream areas
• Synchronization of run-offs from increases flood peaks
various parts of watershed • Climate change affects increases magnitude
• High tide impeding drainage and frequency of precipitations and floods

42 Understanding Urban Flood Hazards

 Influence of Urbanization on different components of water cycle -

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43 Understanding Urban Flood Hazards

 Influence of Urbanization on different components of water cycle -

44 Why is Urban Flooding a Concern?

 Concentrated population due to concentrated income

earning opportunities
 Large impermeable surfaces and construction of buildings
 Concentration of solid and liquid waste without any formal
disposal system
 Obstructed drainage system
 Intensive economic activities
 High value of infrastructure and properties
 Housing without any heath and hygiene standards

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45 Mitigating Urban Flood Floods

 Reducing local floods by inducing infiltration through:

 preservation of unsealed areas,
 preservation of natural ponds,
 inducing groundwater recharge and greening of unsealed areas,
 introducing permeable paving,
 provision of infiltration trenches, soak ways etc.

46 Mitigating Urban Flood Floods

 Retaining/ transferring local floods:

 minor and major urban drainage system
 preventing clogging of drainage facilities
 detention and retention basins
 rainwater harvesting

 Preventing stormwater contamination:

 strict separation of sewage and stormwater drainage
 protect potential contamination source against floods

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47 Rainwater Harvesting

 A complementary multipurpose retention strategy is stormwater

storage as a source of water supply, so-called “rainwater
harvesting”.
 Rain Water Harvesting (RWH)- process of collecting, conveying &
storing water from rainfall in an area – for beneficial use.
 Considering economic and environmental advantages and its
potential for mitigation of urban floods, rainwater harvesting is
not only applicable in cities where fresh water resources are scarce
but constitutes a reasonable measure in almost all cities.

48 Rainwater Harvesting

 Rainwater harvest potential for Dhaka,

estimated by Institute of Water Modeling
as 15% of total demand.
 For an average rainfall of 1,000mm,
approximately four million liters of
rainwater can be collected in a year in an
acre of land (4,047 m2), post evaporation.
 As RWH - neither energy-intensive nor
labor-intensive, can be a cost-effective
alternative to other water accruing
methods

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49 Rainwater Harvesting
 Advantages –
 Provides self-sufficiency to water supply
 Reduces the cost for pumping of ground water
 Provides high quality water, soft and low in minerals
 Improves the quality of ground water through dilution when recharged
 Reduces soil erosion & flooding in urban areas
 The rooftop rain water harvesting is less expensive & easy to construct,
operate and maintain
 In desert, RWH only relief
 In saline or coastal areas & Islands, rain water provides good quality water

50 Reducing Urban Flood Vulnerability

 Reducing physical vulnerability of people and infrastructure

 Reducing constitutional/economic vulnerability
 Reducing informational/motivational vulnerability

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51 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

 Dhaka’s average annual rainfall is about 2,000 mm, most of it

occurring during the summer monsoon.
 Dhaka has a long history of regular inundation during the
monsoon season.
 The city is now vulnerable to urban flooding resulting from the
combined effects of poor drainage of rainfall, inadequate
drainage capacity of pump stations, and high water levels of the
outfall rivers.

52 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

2007 2004 1998 1988
Height of Turag 0.02 0.7 1.23 1.58
Peak above Balu 0.68 1.35 2.03 2.41
Danger Level Buriganga 0.78 1.05 1.46 1.75
Tongi Khal 0.5 - - -

2007 2004 1998 1988

Duration of Turag 1 17 56 22
flood above Balu 25 26 69 30
Danger Level Buriganga 29 22 65 25
Tongi Khal 20 - - -

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53 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

 September 14, 2004: Recorded highest daily
rainfall (341 mm) and 5-day cumulative rainfall of
600 mm

Source: Khan et
al., 2010 IWFM,
BUET

54 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

July 23, 2007:

 The worst affected were Azimpur, and
the old parts of the city.
 The Meteorological Office recorded 134
millimeters of rain in Dhaka between
6:00am and 3:00pm.
 WASA sources said the drains can deal
with only 10 millimeters (mm) of rain an
hour. The city has 150 square kilometers
of storm drains, whereas it needs at least
260 sq kms to collect runoff from heavy
shower.

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55 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

July 28, 2009:

 The heaviest rain in 53 years
battered Bangladesh's capital
Tuesday, leaving at least six
people dead and stranding
thousands in their swamped
homes.
The national weather office
said 333 mm of rain fell in 12
hours in Dhaka, an
overcrowded city of about 10
million people - the most in a
single day since 1956

56 Urban Flood in Dhaka City

September 22, 2023:

 Dhaka residents experienced
a night of horror as the city
witnessed 113 millimeters of
rain within only three hours,
from 9pm to 12am.

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Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

57
Flooding in Dhaka
 Unauthorized development on the drainage routes
 Encroachment of the lakes, waterbodies, detention areas and retarding
ponds
 Reduced conveyance capacity of storm sewers by accumulation of solids
 Inadequate passage for storm runoff through newly constructed roads
 Late starting of temporary pumping operation when detention storages
are already filled up from antecedent rainfall
 Malfunction and power outage of permanent pumps
 Unauthorized discharge of domestic sewage into storm sewers

Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

58
Flooding in Dhaka
 Dying rivers of Dhaka –
Dhaleshawari River Flowing Between Narayanganj and Munshiganj
(Daily Star report, August 02, 2011)

1,000 acre land

enchroached.
60% pollution by
industries.
82% human excreta
discharged to city
directly.
1,000 brick kilns along
river bank.

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Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

59
Flooding in Dhaka
 Dying rivers of Dhaka –

Encroachment of Turag at Encroachment of Balu at

Kamarpara of Tongi Rupganj
(Daily Star report, August 02, 2011) (Daily Star report, August 02, 2011)

Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

60
Flooding in Dhaka
 dilapidated state of canals in and around Dhaka–

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Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

61
Flooding in Dhaka
 Conversion of floodplain –

Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

62
Flooding in Dhaka

DMDP
(1995-2015),
Structure
Plan

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Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

63
Flooding in Dhaka

About 49 projects have

been identified in the
Flood Flow zones.

Location of Land Development

Project and DMDP Flood Flow
Zone Policy Map

Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

64
Flooding in Dhaka

• DAP 2010: the ”Sub Flood Flow Zone” was absent and it
was merged with other land use zones
• DAP 2016-2035: general floodplains have been given
conditional land development options; also provides
conditional construction rights in 28.86 percent of the area
identified as agricultural land

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Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

65
Flooding in Dhaka
 Weak institutional set up to carry on proposed policies and programs.
Lack of coordination among different agencies involved with wetland
issue.
 Absence of participation of various stakeholders like: government,
private developers, local plot owners of the wetland properties.
 Lack of awareness among city dwellers and media.
 Absence of clarification of various wetland related terms and clear
demarcation of wetlands and water bodies of Dhaka city.
 Socio-economic and political forces are playing important role.
 A comprehensive planning approach required to be adopted for proper
management and conservation of wetland.

Causes of Aggravated Stormwater

66
Flooding in Dhaka
 Future Goal
 Integrated management of water supply, water use,
wastewater, stormwater, solid waste and aquatic ecosystem is
necessary to ensure sustainable management of urban water
systems.
 This will lead to reducing pollution and health problems,
reducing flood impacts and improving the water quality in
waterbodies.
 Ecological services of water bodies required to be valued.

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67

Thank You, and

The End

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