Jal Shakti Ministry Adopts National Scale Floodplain Delineation

Floodplains are low-lying areas adjacent to rivers and streams that get inundated during floods. They play a vital role in flood management and provide various ecosystem services.

• However, floodplains face encroachment and degradation due to human activities like settlements, infrastructure development etc. This reduces their flood mitigation capacity and impacts associated ecosystems and livelihoods.
• Demarcating floodplains accurately is crucial for their conservation and wise use but has been a challenge in India due to lack of reliable topological and flood data.
• To address this, the Ministry of Jal Shakti recently set up a high-level committee to provide technical support for floodplain zoning and demarcate floodplains across the country.

Key Features of the High-level Committee

• Headed by Chairperson of the Central Water Commission (CWM)
• Includes surveyor general of India, technical experts from relevant ministries and departments
• Tasked to demarcate floodplains across India in 3 years
• Shall develop guidelines and provide techno-legal support to state governments for notification of floodplains
• Build capacities of state agencies for floodplain zoning

Importance and Benefits of Floodplain Zoning

• Helps prevent loss of lives and damage from floods
• Conserves floodplains and maintains their ecosystem services
• Guides urban planning by indicating no-development zones
• Streamlines compensation and relief for flood-affected people
• Supports navigational use of river channels
• Enables wetland conservation

Current Status of Floodplain Zoning in India

• No uniform guidelines exist for floodplain zoning
• Only few states like Uttarakhand, Bihar, Rajasthan have notified some floodplains so far
• Notification limited to main stem of major rivers like Ganga, Yamuna, Ghaghara

Key Challenges

• Lack of accurate topological and hydrometeorological data
• Outdated and inconsistent methods for flood discharge calculation
• Techno-legal complexities in notifying floodplains
• Encroachments and human infrastructure in floodplains
• Overlapping institutional mandates for floodplain regulation
• Political economy barriers like resistance from local communities dependent on floodplain resources

Approach Adopted by the Committee

The committee has adopted a systematic approach involving:

• Consultations with expert agencies like NIH, Roorkee to establish updated methods for flood estimation and demarcation.
• Use of latest satellite data, digital elevation models and hydrological models to accurately map floodplain boundaries.
• Issuing advisory to state governments for urgent notification of demarcated floodplains under existing laws and institutional mechanisms.
• Capacity building of state level agencies like Irrigation/Water Resources Departments on revised procedures for floodplain zoning and notification.
• Developing a national guideline document on technical procedures for accurate floodplain zoning to serve as reference for states.
• Providing techno-legal support to states for phased notification of floodplains through expert committees and public consultations.

Floodplain Zoning Practices Globally

Many countries follow floodplain zoning system to reduce vulnerability against flood disasters:

• The US has National Flood Insurance Program linking floodplain regulation with disaster insurance.
• Australia provides maps of high and low flood risk zones to guide development control.
• The EU Floods Directive calls for identification of flood risk zones and their integration into development plans.
• Cities like Seoul, Jakarta and Bangkok are relocating/upgrading housing and infrastructure from floodplains.

Way Forward

To achieve national scale floodplain zoning, concerted action is needed across levels:

• Update database of river morphology, discharge and flood patterns using latest technology like satellite remote sensing and hydrological modeling.
• Build consensus among center and states through expert committees involving all stakeholders.
• Undertake priority zoning in flood prone basins like Ganga, Brahmaputra, Mahanadi.
• Strengthen techno-legal capacity and streamline institutional coordination between water resources, urban development and disaster management agencies.
• Develop national and state level plans for phased relocation of infrastructure from demarcated floodplains.
• Link floodplain zoning with disaster insurance, wetland conservation and river regulation policies.

Accurate demarcation of floodplains and regulating activities within them is vital for flood management as well as conservation of associated ecosystems. The high-level committee on floodplain zoning has the onerous but achievable task of steering nationally consistent guidelines and techno-legal capacity towards this goal. Close coordination between central and state agencies is crucial for translating floodplain zones on maps into regulated spaces on ground.