Assessment of Flood Hazard and its Effects in Dolokhat village of Lakhimpur District, Assam

Abstract

Land of rivers, India annually faces the perennial problems of flood and siltation basically along the flood plain region since millennia. Situated on a tectonically active zone and transversed by the Brahmaputra and Barak river system, Assam has been recognized as the worst sufferer. Increasing magnitude and devastation of the hazard is much owed due to the great earthquake of 1950 along with both natural and human-induced factors and activities. The regions located at upper Brahmaputra valley are frequently inundated and eroded wiping away vast areas of cropland, properties, and human lives. As such, the Lakhimpur district of Assam faces similar havoc each year with massive destruction leaving many people helpless and homeless. The people living in the rural areas of the district had to struggle hard to sustain their lives and livelihoods and thus, adopted their indigenous or traditional ways and means of coping with the floods. This paper, therefore, attempts to study the causes and impacts of floods caused by the river Singri, a sub-tributary of the Brahmaputra river on the inhabitants of Dolokhat village located in Lakhimpur district. This study also takes into account the differential shifting patterns of the river for a period of 12 years from 2005 to 2017, wherein highest erosion was observed during 2017 eroding 22.60 hectares of land displacing people and livestock. The study was undertaken using both primary and secondary sources of information. Data and information collected have been processed and analyzed using Google Earth Pro, ArcGIS 10.9.2, Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Such information will enable the planners, policy-makers, geomorphologists, etc. in targeted solutions and strategies to initiate measures and mitigate such problems so that the adverse effects of floods could be reduced to a certain extent.