India Flood Atlas

The flood atlas of India is based on the gridded simulations of flood dynamics. The atlas provide glimpse of past annual maximum flooded area during 1901-2020.

The product is developed based on the flooded area simulated at 10km spatial resolution using the combined H08-CaMa-Flood model. Using hydrological and hydrodynamic models, we reconstructed sub-basin level observed floods for the 1901–2020 period. The role of 51 major reservoirs was considered in flood risk assessment based on long-term simulations for the 1901–2020 period. The long-term data provide us with a record of several floods, which can help in robust estimates of flood risk in different sub-basins. Floods affect a large population in India during almost every summer monsoon season, leaving their mark through human mortality, migration, and agricultural and infrastructure damage. Sub-basins in the Ganga and Brahmaputra river basins witnessed substantial flood inundation extent during the worst flood in the observational record. Major floods in the sub-basins of the Ganga and Brahmaputra occur during the late summer monsoon season (August-September). For more information, users may refer to the below cited article. 

Vegad, U., Pokhrel, Y., and Mishra, V.: Flood risk assessment for Indian sub-continental river basins, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 28, 1107–1126, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-1107-2024, 2024.