Satellite-based assessment of the catastrophic Jhelum floods of September 2014, Jammu & Kashmir, India

Abstract

The state of Jammu and Kashmir in North India experienced one of the worst floods in the past 60 years, during the first week of September 2014. In the present study, multi-temporal synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images acquired from Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite RISAT-1 and Canadian satellite Radarsat-2 during the peak flood period (08thÀ23rd September 2014) are used for extraction of flood disaster footprints, mapping spatial and temporal dynamics of flood inundation and assessing the disaster impact. With the aid of pre-and post-flood satellite images, coupled with hydro-meteorological data, the unprecedented flood situation is analyzed. It is estimated that about 557 km 2 of the Kashmir Valley's geographical area was inundated. Bandipora, Pulwama, Srinagar, Baramulla and Budgam were the worst flood affected districts, having more than 50 km 2 of their area affected by flood waters. Of the total inundated area, about 80% of the area under agricultural activity was submerged, followed by built-up areas constituting about 12% of geographical area. About 22 lakh people in 287 villages were affected by floods. The flood waters persisted in the northern and central part of the valley for more than two weeks.

Climatic, geomorphic and anthropogenic drivers of the 2014 extreme flooding in the Jhelum basin of Kashmir, India

“…The magnitude of 2014 flood (»115,000 cfs) was CONTACT Shakil A. Romshoo shakilrom@kashmiruniversity.ac.in almost as high as 1903 and 1959 floods recorded in the recent flood history and the living memory of the people in Kashmir (Bhatt et al 2016;Lawrence 1895), making it a 50-year return period flood.…”

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

“…Effective flood modeling and mapping are important for flood assessment, loss estimation, and sustainable land use planning along flood plains to mitigate flood risk effectively [25,26]. Multi-temporal remote sensing images provide a wide source of low-cost information with a reliable accuracy that can be beneficially utilized for flood mapping [27,28]. Furthermore, multispectral remote sensing-derived indexes and GIS-based classifications can be exploited to detect flooded areas [18,29,30].…”

An Integrated Geoinformatics and Hydrological Modelling-Based Approach for Effective Flood Management in the Jhelum Basin, NW Himalaya

“…Since 2014, the flooding threats in this region have been a recurring phenomenon every year [2]. The magnitude of this event crossed all bounds of the recorded history of floods in the region, not only in terms of discharge, but also in terms of loss of life and property [3][4][5][6]. The event has generated a scientific consensus for an alarming need of a robust flood mitigation strategy for the Kashmir region.…”

“…The model will reveal the peak of concentration or basin lag time that will serve as a warning for the downstream regions. Further, such a setup would also help in assessing the comparative basin lag times of the Jhelum watersheds, thus helping in prioritizing the watersheds for the construction of hydraulic structures that could help in extending the peak concentration, so that rapid concentrations of water in the Jhelum river that result in a huge wave of water to promulgate, as has been witnessed in the September 2014 floods, are delayed [3]. The third important step is the vulnerability assessment of the Jhelum basin, so that a final plan is drafted where people can be desisted from building structures in the flood prone areas or those who are already living in them could be resettled in safer zones [4][5][6].…”