Flood risk assessment in South Asia to prioritize flood index insurance applications in Bihar, India

Abstract

Floods cause catastrophic destruction to life and livelihood in South Asia than any other parts of the world. This research assessed long term (2001 to 2015) flood risk at South Asia level using eight-day Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer data and subsequently expanded this methodology to identify potential zones for piloting flood index insurance scheme in Bihar, India. Bihar was further assessed for sub-regional segmentation of its 37 districts into four flood risk zones based on k-means clustering and Getis-Ord Gi à analysis of multi-modal dataset consisting of demographics, meteorological, agricultural, flood characteristics and economic loss from floods. Satellite based risk assessment identified parts of Indus basin in Pakistan, Ganges basin in North India and majority of Bangladesh as flood hotspots. Site prioritization for flood index insurance in Bihar identified Madhubani, Darbhanga, Muzaffarpur and Sitamarhi districts as very high flood risk districts by both methods signifying large impact of any potential interventions implemented in these districts.

Projections of climatic extremes in a data poor transboundary river basin of India and Pakistan

“…For example, the 2010 Pakistan flood caused heavy economic losses in the order of $9.2 billion and due to severe heat wave in 2015 in Karachi the death toll climbed to 1,233 (World Bank, 2013a;Saleem et al, 2018). Similarly, the 2013 flood in Uttarkhand, India caused heavy economic losses in the order of $3.8 billion with loss of 4,000 lives (Matheswaran et al, 2019).…”

Geospatial analysis of September, 2019 floods in the lower gangetic plains of Bihar using multi-temporal satellites and river gauge data

“…The study area is divided into two halves by the River Ganges flowing from West to East. The major brunt of flood menace, is faced by North Bihar, because of higher population, exposure to floods, topography and higher rainfall in the upstream catchment areas (Jha and Gundimeda 2019;Matheswaran et al 2019). About 76 per cent of North Bihar population is estimated to be living under the recurring flood threat (Flood Management Information System, n.d.).…”

“…Bihar, is one of the most chronically flood affected states of India, recurrently facing flooding problem. Various researchers have addressed the flooding problem in the region utilizing multi-temporal satellite datasets and geospatial tools from time to time (Sinha et al 2008;Bhatt et al 2010;Singh et al 2011;Pandey et al 2014;Manjusree et al 2015;Amarnath et al 2017;Jha and Gundimeda 2019;Matheswaran et al 2019;Tripathi et al 2019;Mishra and Sinha 2020;Tripathi et al 2020). The late September, 2019 flood event was unique for the region due to late withdrawal of monsoons, which caused severe flooding problems.…”

Unpacking Barriers to Socially Inclusive Weather Index Insurance: Towards a Framework for Inclusion

“…One of the WIIs informing this paper is an index-based flood insurance product implemented in parts of Bihar by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). By integrating high-tech computer modeling, satellite imaginary, and Geographical Information System (GIS) technology, this insurance model uses predetermined flood thresholds to trigger speedy compensation payouts [23,24]. This approach is considered both cost-effective and able to better target post-disaster relief to compensate for agricultural losses.…”