Bangladesh – Information for Flood Management (CARE)

The Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna Rivers in India and Bangladesh are some of the most flood–prone river systems in the world. Excessive floods present serious risks to the millions of people living in the floodplains. In a normal year an estimated 25 percent of Bangladesh is flooded, and in an excessive flood year, up to 65 percent of the country is flooded. Despite this constant and pervasive flooding, Bangladesh does not have an effective system for providing useful flood forecasts or other flood warning information at the community level.

Working as a contractor to CARE/Bangladesh under USAID funding, Riverside Technology, inc. (RTi) assisted Bangladesh in managing floods assessing and recommending hydrologic models and spatial information technologies, including Geographical Information Systems, remote sensing, and Global Positioning Systems. RTi’s approach recognized that flooding in Bangladesh occurs annually, and thus the focus was on flooding as a “resource” as well as a hazard. RTi also addressed the limitations of water during the dry season, and how applying geospatial information can help understand, mitigate, and manage those limitations.

RTi produced a comprehensive document describing and analyzing flooding in Bangladesh, and identified the critical Bangladeshi users for the hydrologic models and spatial information, and their requirements. The document also included recommendations on how to fill the flood management information and analysis gaps, focusing on assistance for the Bangladesh Flood Forecasting Center, the Disaster Management Bureau, and the Ministry of Water Resources.

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