Some parts of India facing overlap of floods and droughts: IIT study

IIT Roorkee researchers find a growing concentration of districts vulnerable to both floods and droughts, with multi-hazard hotspots emerging across northern and eastern India

Vulnerability to two seemingly contrasting extremes — floods and droughts — has intensified across several parts of India, with an increasing concentration of districts facing multiple and overlapping pressures, according to a study by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee.

 

Titled ‘From single to compound hazards: how flood and drought vulnerabilities have intensified across India’, the study found that a substantial share of districts exhibited heightened susceptibility to the two hydrological extremes. 

 

“By 2011, more than one-fifth of the country’s districts were classified as highly vulnerable to floods, while nearly one-fifth showed high vulnerability to drought. The combined assessment further highlights the growing prominence of multi-hazard vulnerability, with more than one in every ten districts positioned towards the higher end of the Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Index (MHVI),” it said.

 

The MHVI identifies areas where underlying social, demographic and physical vulnerabilities to both extremes are converging.

 

The research indicated that these changes are not uniformly distributed across the country, but a growing concentration of multi-hazard hotspots was observed particularly across eastern and northern India. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar and Jharkhand showed increases in both flood and drought vulnerability in different districts. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal featured towards the higher end of vulnerability for both hazards.

 

“Floods and droughts are often treated as separate risks, but their consequences are experienced by communities within the same social and physical systems,” said Mohit Mohanty, associate professor at IIT Roorkee, who led the study. 

 

Vulnerability to these extremes is changing and, in several regions, increasingly overlapping, he added. “A district-level understanding of these patterns can help identify where integrated approaches to preparedness and adaptation may be most relevant.”

 

The study stated that looking at hazard vulnerability merely at the state level obscures the differences between individual districts. A district-level assessment can offer a more granular understanding of where communities may face multiple pressures and where climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction efforts may need greater attention, it said.

 

The research analysed 591 districts across India in 2001 and 2011 using the latest nationally consistent and granular socio-economic, demographic, and infrastructure data available at the district level.