ANNOUNCEMENTS
Hooghly-Bhagirathi River (22° 53' 60.0000'' N, 88° 23' 23.9964'' E) is the most versatile river in the Southern part of Bengal including the Sundarban Delta region. This river has great impacts on the socio-ecological life of the Coastal part of the Bengal. The river system is considered as a lower Ganga Basin and merged with the Bay of Bengal. River Ganga splits into two tributaries at Farakka in Murshidabad; the Padma goes to Bangladesh and another stream through the Southern part of the Bengal called Hooghly-Bhagirathi River. The ecological consequences of such hydrologic alterations include rapid tropical cyclones, river floods, and high tides.
This project focuses on the river & tidal floods in the Southern part of the Bengal including Sundarban near Kakdwip. Over the past few years, the number of natural disasters has increased because of the level of the sea rising continuously along with changing of climate. In previous years Coastal region of Bengal and Odisha has been facing rainfall events with high intensity for a shorter period and high tides. These unusual events lead to moderate to extreme flood events in the Southern part of West Bengal. However, in disasters during the Monsoon season excessive amount of water is diverted from the Farakka barrage to the Hooghly-Bhagirathi River to reduce the water pressure. The major findings in this project are the causes and impacts of the river & tidal floods on the Southern part of Bengal including Sundarban, using hydrodynamically coupled 2D-2D River & tidal flood model developed using TUFLOW software. The frequent floods in the site calls for effective policies & interventions to aid people become more climate-resilient.
Keywords: River & tidal flood modelling, Hydro-dynamic modelling, TUFLOW, Hooghly River.
