Applications of Medium Range Probabilistic Flood Forecast for Societal Benefi ts: Lessons Learnt from Bangladesh - Reducing Disaster: Early Warning Systems for Climate Change - page 162

Fig. 9.1 The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna basins (Source: BWDB)

Fig. 9.2 Flood affected areas from 1954-2012 in Bangladesh (Data sources from FFWC 2012.
Compiled based on the data from BWDB)

'minor' fl oods and low frequency fl oods of 'extreme' or 'major' proportions
(Boyce 1990 ; Rasid and Paul 1987 ). In the last three decades, major fl oods have
occurred in Bangladesh in 1987, 1988, 1998, 2004 and 2007. Figure 9.2 shows the
percent area of fl ooding from 1954 to 2011 (based on data from FFWC). During
each fl ood, hundreds of people were killed. Damage to crops, small enterprises and
infrastructure was as high as several billion US dollars, severely disrupting the
local economy (Penning-Rowsell et al. 2012 ).