Hydrometeorological Hazards Mapping, Monitoring and Modelling

Abstract

Northwest Himalaya (NWH) has unique topographical and climate settings which makes this area prone to various types of hydrometeorological hazards such as flash floods, hail storms, glacier lake outburst floods, avalanches and mudflows. These hazards have high probability of turning into natural disasters if proper planning of natural resources, infrastructure and man-made structures is not done. Floods of June 2013 in Uttarakhand (Dobhal et al. 2013; Thakur et al. 2014) and 2014 floods of Srinagar (Bhatt et al. 2016) are prime examples of such hazards turning into the major disasters. Northwest Himalayan states in the last few years have experienced large number of hydrometeorological disasters such as high-intensity precipitation, cloud burst and subsequent flash flooding in downstream areas, snow avalanches, glacier lake outburst floods (GLOF), hail storms, drought and rainfall-induced mudflows (Kumar et al. 2015; Gupta et al. 2013; Kumar et al. 2012; Rana et al. 2012). This chapter gives an overview of various hydrometeorological hazards which are reoccurring in NWH and provides insights in few such hazards by providing some actual case studies related to such hazards.