Extent of 2014 Flood Damages in Chenab Basin Upper Indus Plain

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the extent of flood damages in the Chenab basin upper Indus plain. The upper Indus plain is a fertile area and supports millions of human population and diverse economic activities. Every year in summer, the combined action of monsoon rain water and meltwater (melting of snow and glaciers) augment rivers discharge leading to damaging flood. The study region is prone to floods. The upstream areas of Chenab basin are mountainous and experiences characteristics of flash floods, whereas riverine floods dominate the lower reach. In wake of observed climate change, there is a rising trend in temperature, which indicates the early and rapid melting of snow and glaciers in the catchment areas. The analysis reveals that the spatial and temporal scales of violent weather events have also been grown during the past three decades. The substantial increase in heavy precipitation events and rapid melting of snow in the headwater region, siltation in river channels, human encroachments on the active flood plain and bursting of embankments have further escalated the flooding events. Analysis further reveals that in the study region, almost every year, the floodwater overflows the levees and cause damages to standing crops, infrastructure and sources of livelihood, and incurs human casualties.

Operational Monitoring and Damage Assessment of Riverine Flood-2014 in the Lower Chenab Plain, Punjab, Pakistan, Using Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques

“…Floods in Pakistan mostly occur in the monsoon months of July and September, due to heavy rains and the melting of snow upstream in the Himalaya region. This results in riverine floods that produce tremendous detrimental impacts on human lives, agriculture, and infrastructure [16][17][18]. For instance, the 2010 riverine flood caused a large inundation that covered an area of 70,238 km 2 , with 884,715 affected houses [8,12,18].…”

“…In 2014, heavy rains coupled with the melting of glaciers in the upstream part of Chenab caused flash flooding in mountainous areas and riverine floods in the upper and lower Chenab plain [20][21][22]. It was considered one of the worst riverine flood catastrophes in terms of damages to standing crops, housing, and infrastructure along the floodplain areas of the Chenab river [13,16,22,23]. This indicates that flooding is a serious problem in Pakistan that requires significant efforts to reduce its effects, mainly through effective post-disaster monitoring and management, especially in the Chenab plain [22][23][24].…”

“…We first provide the limitation of previous studies on the riverine flood of 2014 that focused less on post-flood mapping, monitoring, and damage assessment. These previous studies mainly focused on the upper Chenab plain [13,16,21,22] without focusing on the lower Chenab plain. This is despite the fact that the lower Chenab plain is a fertile flood-prone plain and considered an economically underdeveloped region in the Punjab province of Pakistan.…”