Three Recent Extreme Floods in Bangladesh: A Hydro-Meteorological Analysis

Bangladesh is highly vulnerableto floods due to its geographical location at the deltas of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) rivers. About 92.5 per cent of the area of three basins lies outside the boundaries of the country. More than 80 per cent of the annual precipitation of Bangladesh occurs in the monsoon period between June and September. The hydro-meteorological characteristics of the three river basins are unique and they often cause large to extremely large floods in Bangladesh. It is possible that these floods could inundate 70 per cent of the country and the physical damage could be very serious for the economy of Bangladesh with its low gross domestic product (GDP). In 1987, 1988 and 1998, Bangladesh experienced three extreme floods, leaving trails of devastation and human misery. In this article it is demonstrated that these floods differed in terms of magnitude, extent, depth and duration. The external and internal hydro-meteorological dynamics were also different.