07-Nov-19

Flood Risk Analysis

• Flood Risk Analysis is done using GIS and RS tools.
Lecture 29
• Land use maps are prepared which show residential
areas and main commercial complexes in hazard prone
November 7, 2019 areas.
14: 00 to 15:00 hrs • Lack of land use planning is also exposed in a flood
hazard map.

Disaster Management and Mitigation • Critical facilities’ map is prepared separately to depict
hospitals, schools, and colleges in hazard prone areas.
Adani Azhoni, Department of Civil Engineering
National Institute of Technology karnataka

azhoni@nitk.edu.in 0824 - 247 3359 Intercom 3359

Flood Prevention, Preparedness

and Mitigation
• The FM measures can be categorised into structural and
non-structural measures.
• Structural measures for FM are physical in nature and
aim to prevent flood waters from reaching potential
damage centres, whereas
• nonstructural measures strive to keep the people away
from flood waters.

Embankments/Banks, Flood Embankments/Banks, Flood

Walls, Flood Levees
• The embankment system in the river restricts the river to
its existing course and prevents it from overflowing the
banks.
• Embankments are constructed generally with earth easily
available from nearby areas.
• In developed areas where adequate space is not
available or land is very expensive, concrete or masonry
floodwalls are constructed.
Walls, Flood Levees
• Embankments (including ringbunds and town-protection
works) are the most popular method of flood protection
and have been constructed extensively in the past.
• Embankments are designed and constructed to afford a
degree of protection against floods of a certain frequency
and intensity or against the maximum recorded flood
depending upon the location protected and their
economic justification.

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Dams, Reservoirs and other Water
Storages
• Lakes, low lying depressions, tanks, dams and reservoirs
store significant proportions of flood water and the stored
water can be released subsequently when the flood has
receded.
• The stored water can also be used subsequently for
irrigation, power generation, and meeting industrial and
drinking water needs.
• In the case of large multipurpose reservoirs, a proper
reservoir regulation schedule can be worked out for
optimum benefit from the project as a whole.
Desilting/Dredging of Rivers
• The studies carried out so far indicate
aggradation/degradation of riverbeds in certain reaches,
but they do not confirm the common belief of a general
rise in river beds.
• Silting at places where the rivers emerge from the hills
into the plains, at convex bends and near their outfall into
another river or lake or sea, is a natural phenomenon.
• Accordingly, rivers exhibit a tendency to braid/ meander/
form deltas.
• Various committees/ experts appointed to look into this
problem have not recommended desilting/dredging of the
rivers as a remedial measure.
Catchment Area Treatment/Af
forestation
• Watershed management measures such as developing
the vegetative cover i.e. afforestation and conservation of
soil cover in conjunction with structural works like check
dams, detention basins etc. serve as an effective
measure in reducing flood peaks and controlling the
suddenness of the runoff.
• This, however is not very effective during a large flood
although, it does help in reducing the siltation of
reservoirs and to some extent, silt load in the rivers as
well.
07-Nov-19
Channel Improvement
• A channel can be made to carry flood discharge at levels
lower than its prevailing high flood level by improving its
discharge carrying capacity.
• Channel improvement aims at increasing the area of flow
or the velocity of flow (or both) to increase its carrying
capacity.
• Channel improvement has not been resorted to widely in
India mainly because of the high costs involved and
topographical constraints.
Diversion of Flood Water
• Diverting all or a part of the discharge into a natural or
artificially constructed channel, lying within or in some
cases outside the flood plains is a useful means of
lowering water levels in the river.
• The diverted water may be taken away from the river
without returning it further downstream or it may be
returned to the river some distance downstream or to a
lake or to the sea.
Anti-erosion Works
• Alluvial rivers are usually meandering in nature and,
therefore, raise problems of erosion and silting at various
locations.
• This is a natural phenomenon and results in loss of land
at one location and gain at some other.
• Generally, there is a tendency of the meander to shift
progressively downstream.
• The process of bank erosion is, therefore, consistently
active and measures for protection of banks are a
recurring necessity.
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Sea Walls/Coastal Protection

Anti-erosion Works
Works
• Anti-erosion works are normally taken up only for
• The erosion of land by the sea waves in coastal areas is
protection of towns, industrial areas, groups of thickly
a serious problem.
populated villages,
• Sea walls/coastal protection works in the form of groynes
• railway lines and roads where re-location is not possible
etc. are constructed to prevent flooding erosion in coastal
on socio-techno-economic grounds,
areas by sea water
• long lengths of vital embankments benefitting large areas
in case retirement is not technically or otherwise feasible
• and agricultural lands where the cost-benefit ratio justifies
such works.
• Bank erosion can be minimised by adopting measures
that aim at deflecting the current away from the river bank
or which aim at reducing the current along the bank of the
river and induce silt.

Alignment, Location, Design and

Provision of Waterway i.e. Vents, Non-Structural Measures
Culverts, Bridges and Causeways in
National Highways, State Highways, • Non-structural measures strive to keep people away from
flood waters.
District and Other Roads and Railways
• It contemplates the use of flood plains judiciously,
Embankments. simultaneously permitting vacating of the same for use by
the river whenever the situation demands.
• Inadequate waterway in the form of vents/culverts/
bridges/causeways is another cause of increase in • This technique allows the use of flood plains by reducing
vulnerability to floods. the disaster dimension, while retaining its beneficial
effects.
• Further, breaches in them may result in huge loss of life
and properties.
• Insufficient height of embankments may result in
overtopping and breaches.

Flood Plain Zoning Flood Proofing

• It is natural for a river to overflow its banks in the event of
heavy rainfall in its upper catchments and spill into the
flood plains, which are basically its domain.
• The basic concept of flood plain zoning is to regulate land
use in the flood plains in order to restrict the damage due
to floods, while deriving maximum benefits from the
same.
• The techniques adopted consist of providing raised
platforms for flood shelter for men and cattle,
• raising the public utility installation especially the
platforms for drinking water hand pumps and bore wells
above flood level,
• promoting construction of double-storey buildings wherein
the first floor can be used for taking shelter during floods.

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Flood Forecasting and Warning
• Flood forecasting enables us to be forewarned as to
when the river is going to use its flood plain, to what
extent and for how long.
07-Nov-19
Integrated Water Resources
Management
• Integrated water resources management (IWRM) is an
alternative to the dominant sector-bysector, top-down
management style of the past.
• IWRM aims at integrating management of water
resources at the basin or watershed scale.
• IWRM looks outside the narrow ‘water sector’ for policies
and activities to achieve sustainable water resources
development.