Challenges in Predicting Floods

Flood is said to have occurred when a piece of land that is usually dry is submerged under water. It is the foremost cause of natural disaster-related fatalities. Delving into the past would unveil evidences of devastating great flood disasters. In the recent years, there is a surprising increase in the frequency and severity of floods in different parts of the world, which affected lives, properties, social and mental health of millions of people. This trend is speculated to further intensify in the coming years. Currently, there is a debate in the scientific community on attribution of the same to human-induced climate and/or land-use/land-cover (LULC) changes, and efforts are on to develop robust procedures for accurate flood prediction.