193-Aspects of Socio-Economic Implications of Floods in Last Decades.

Abstract

From the records of natural disasters, herein presented a socio-economic aspect of flooding consequences in last few decades of 20th Century. It is seen that flood is the most frequent natural disaster claiming loss of life and property compared to other natural disasters. It has been held that one third of all losses due to nature's furry is attributable to flooding. Flood damage has been extremely severe in recent decades and it is evident that both the frequency and intensity of floods are increasing. In an average flood claims a loss of more than 50 billion dollars (US) per year and 40000 victims per year in the last decades of the 20th Century in the world (Berga, 2000). Since the floods are frequent in India also, it looms large on its politico-socio-economic screen. Since the 15' Five Year Plan in India, a huge amount of money is being invested in flood protection, flood fighting and mitigation activities-both structural and non-structural. Non-structural measures like flood forecasting, flood information dissemination, flood zoning, flood mapping, administrative preparedness etc. need special attention in order to reach greater effectiveness in reduction of flood damages. Added to this, in the age of Information Technology the use of satellite imagery, GIS based work will be boons in the hands of the technocrats and flood managers in drawing blueprints for flood protection and prevention. The socio-economic analysis will certainly boost planning preparedness and flood prevention by preparing roadmaps for long-term and macro-scale policy decisions.