A GIS and Remote Sensing Perspective on the Hydrodynamic Response of the 2014 Kashmir Floods

In September-2014, the Jammu and Kashmir state of India received unprecedented rains due to strong interaction of the western disturbances with the retreating monsoon. Consequently, several districts were ravaged by the catastrophic floods and subsequent landslides. On 5th September-2014, the Jhelum River in Srinagar breached the danger level by over 1.34 m. The flood discharge was also recorded to be around 2.8 times the normal discharge. The current study examined the hydrodynamic response of the catchment to this rainstorm event. Moreover, the flood progression and recession was analyzed from the remote sensing imageries in pre-flood and post-flood scenarios. Also, the spatio-temporal extent of the inundated and inundation prone areas was mapped using GIS. It was concluded that the deluge was triggered by record rainfall coupled with choked stormwater drains, and reduced carrying capacity of the channel due to excessive silt, encroached floodplains and unplanned urbanization. Past research on the present study area has reported shrinkage and degradation of wetlands and water bodies due to sedimentation and deforestation. Further, even when this region is susceptible to flashfloods historically, and the meteorology data hints towards increasing trend in temperature and rainfall, there is no flood forecasting station in this state. Understandably, it is incumbent on the government to plan for such natural calamities and their consequences. Thus, it is the need of the hour to rehabilitate the water bodies and storm drains, and build a robust network of hydro-meteorology stations. Also, it becomes imperative to scientifically demarcate the river margins as they not only come handy in groundwater recharge, natural silting-desilting and flood mitigation during annual cycles of lows flows and floods, but also support a delicate ecological balance being a medium of land-water interface.