COMPUTER AIDED EVALUATION OF DIGITAL TERRAIN DATA FOR FLOOD PLAIN MANAGEMENT

Abstract

The growing population in our country, which is mainly settled on the banks of the rivers, has resulted in haphazard development of flood plains.Developmental activities in flood plains are creating a lot of environmental problems such as increasing flood frequency and flood volume. For example, large scale development in the flood plains of river Yamuna between Tajewala and Delhi, has increased the flood volume twice and travel time has been reduced to half (Kumar 1986). Similar problem is being faced in all the river flood plains in the country. Increase in flood volume may be said to be the primary cause of increased flood damages. To improve the economic status of the country, mitigation of flood losses has become an important task. Floods can be controlled by a number of ways. Mitigation of flood losses requires the proper planning and management of flood plains. Hence there is an urgent need for proper development and management of flood plains. FLOOD PLAIN MANAGEMENT (FPM) is a rational approach to minimize the flood losses