Analysis of Flood Intensifying Condition and Associated Socio-Economic Damages: A Case Study from Undivided Paschim Medinipur

The state of West Bengal is exposed to numerous hazards, but the problem of recurrent floods has been causing massive losses to lives and other properties. Paschim Medinipur district is no exception to it. Floods result from a number of basic factors of which the most important are climatological in nature. An understanding of flood situation requires information about climatological, hydrological, and geomorphological which are responsible for floods. As heavy and prolonged rainfall is the universal cause of floods, morphometric and hydrological characteristics of the basin are also important factors to form a situation like flood. The river discharge is a function of width, depth and velocity and velocity depends on hydraulic radius, channel slope and bed roughness and above all meander length. Thus, the channel geometry is also equally important for flooding. Besides, there are numerous variable characteristics of the basin and the networks whose effects on flood hydrograph are often complex. Some of these important secondary characteristics result from the complex interaction between climate, geology, soil type, vegetation cover, and land use. Thus, keeping in view of the above-mentioned factors, this chapter critically examines the various causes and intensifying conditions of flooding in the different rivers of undivided Paschim Medinipur District. There are 39 sample villages that were also randomly selected from the active floodplain for micro-level analysis, and we also calculate the return periods of different magnitude floods. The sample villages include Ghatal, Daspur—I, Daspur—II, and Sabang block. These blocks were chosen for investigation because this area has frequently been ravaged by floods and tidal inundations and the water logging during heavy rains in summer.