Flood Resilience: Opportunities and Challenges

 Flood Resilience: Opportunities and Challenges

Speakers: Prof. Malay Mukhopadhyay, Dr.Shahinoor Rahman, Dr.AKM Saiful Islam Sir.
The first speaker of the webinar is Prof Malay Mukhopaddhay. In his session, he described flood management & consequences. Renowned environmental scientist Prof Malay Mukhopaddhay shares his experiences regarding flood management & consequences.
Bangladesh and West Bengal share the same environment. Floods are a well-known issue in this region. Prof Malay Mukhopaddhay emphasized the use of Natural Levee. He said, “Man-made causes have changed the flow of the river.” He has also highlighted the characteristic features of the river ‘Ajay’ hereby highlighting the flood of this region. 
According to the professor, we are controlling the river, which is being the main reason behind this sort of floods. 
Prof Malay Mukhopaddhay said, “We have to adapt to the river. One village, one family, we have to deal with all these disasters together with this idea.” He feared the present situation because the absence of any groundwater makes a river non-perennial. Prof Malay Mukhopaddhay proposed both structural, and non-structural measures, which need to be taken. He believes that we need to move forward with a proper plan that combines emotion with science.

The second speaker of the webinar is Dr.MD Shahinoor Rahman, PhD. The main topic of this segment is Flood Resilience opportunities and challenges, where the speaker talked about the role of geospatial technology for building flood resilient communities. 
Dr.MD Shahinoor Rahman, Ph.D., Professor of Department of Earth and Environmental Science of New Jersey City University, USA described the process of resilience the inherence by using geospatial technology. Dr MDShahinoor Rahman said, “To get a proper idea about the flood situation, people need to consider the past flood situation properly.” He emphasizes the four elements of a resilience framework.
 Using current technology, we know when and where floods can occur. Flood mapping and earth observation data are being collected with the help of this. Dr.MD Shahinoor Rahman also said, “Geospatial technology will send the right information to the right person at the right time.”
According to Dr.MD Shahinoor Rahman, geospatial technology can be helpful in flood plain management and policymaking. In the webinar, our guest emphasizes on the various sector of geospatial technology, as like, satellite crop
mapping, water level & position, crop conditions, use of an index, and information dissemination through the web. 
In the last speaker of the webinar, Dr.AKM Saifullah discussed the opportunity of a flood. He emphasizes on the reasons behind the flood. Dr.AKM Saifullah mentioned urbanization, dam breakdown, deforestation, structures, river & waterbodies fill-up, excess use of dams are the reasons behind floods. Factors that contribute to flooding are described in this session. Natural disasters in Bangladesh during 2016-2019 were described in the session. But Dr.AKM Saifullah emphasizes the fact that we must learn from our faults. He said, "Flood makes us learn from mistakes."