Floods

Floods

Subject – Disaster management

Context – Global population exposed to floods grew over 20% in 15 years: Study

Concept –

• The number of people living in floodplains across the world increased by 58-86 million during 2000-2015, according to a new estimate. This indicates a 20-24 per cent growth in the period, the report noted.
• The growth spread over 70 countries was concentrated in low- and middle-income countries, mostly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, the report published in the journal Nature stated. “At least 213 million people were shown to be exposed to flooding in south and southeast Asia alone.”
• The latest estimates are 10 times higher than previous models, the analysis showed.
• “More than 255 million people were affected at least once by major floods in that period,” the report said.
• Migration and urbanisation are major factors behind this growth. Most of those moving to flood-prone areas may be “the most vulnerable, marginalised populations” who had nowhere else to go.
• Reclassification of land following major floods and rising sea levels is another cause for the increase in population in these regions, according to the authors.
• Flood models based on satellite observations go beyond the risk perspective and estimating the impacts of flood risk on populations.
• Satellite imagery can help us understand things like the impact on households, income, wealth, and human health after a flood.
• The findings have been made available at Global Flood Database by Cloud to Street, a collaborative project dedicated to flood risk assessment and science-based action.
• ‘Blue lining’ or the unofficial demarcation of flood-prone areas by financial institutions has led to “underinvestment in flood mitigation infrastructure” and increased risks, the report added.
• The term draws from ‘red lining’ which is a malpractice leading to racist housing policies towards specific communities in neighbourhoods.

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