Cyclonic Storms and Odisha Coast

Abstract

The state of Orissa on the east coast of India is called the disaster gateway as it is one of the most vulnerable states in the country with a very high probability of cyclonic hits. The present research analysed that the countryhas had a series of studies on the mathematical modelling of the cyclonic surges or social analysis of the human apathy. However, there are not many cases where a combination of technology and humanistic approach being tested. The research intends to bridge the gap between the technique and the need. The mix of social mapping and spatial analysis is seldom tried with an outcome poised to aid the community in being more aware and informed thereby leading to sustainable disaster risk reduction and resilience.Over the past decade, a range of agencies of disaster management have invested resources into developing geospatial (GIS) databases to support their risk management decision making. Similarly, recent work has attempted to develop physical models of the hazard phenomenon including hydraulic flood models, landslide probability models and earthquake probability models to name only a few. Most of these models generate results that are spatially explicit (mapped). Little work has been done to link the models with the GIS databases such as road networks, building locations and key utility databases in a decision support framework. Such initiatives can be brought into an integrated in GIS decision support system. The paper sets the premise about the coastal geography of the Odisha coast and also outlines the potential reasons for the heightened vulnerability of the Odisha Coast.