36 million Indians face flood risk: study

News:According to a recent study,36 million people in India would face annual flooding by 2050 and 44 million by 2100 if emissions continue to rise.

Facts:

About the study:

• The study was conducted by the Climate Central study.It is a non-profit science and news organisation providing information to help the public and policymakers make sound decisions about climate and energy.
• The study details findings from individual assessments from 135 countries across multiple climate scenarios and years.
• The study has used a new software called Coastal DEM to produce enabling neighbourhood level exploration of threatened areas around the world.

Key takeaways from the study:

• In India,36 million people would face annual flooding by 2050 and 44 million by 2100 if emissions continue to rise unabated.
• Nearly 21 million are expected to be living below the High Tide Line,the boundary that marks the farthest to which the sea reaches into the land at high tide.
• The six Asian countries namely China, Bangladesh, India, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand which are home to approximately 237 million could experience coastal flooding at least annually by 2050, which is more than four times the estimates based on older elevation data.

Additional information:

About CoastalDEM:

• CoastalDEM stands for Coastal Digital Elevation Model.It is a new software which uses more variables such as vegetation cover, population indices to estimate the actual land surface affected by floods.
• The estimates of this model relies on detailed maps of the globe taken by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission(SRTM) of NASA.SRTM was a radar mapping system that travelled aboard the space shuttle Endeavour in 2000.
• The maps so prepared form the basis for determining the elevation of the earth’s topography.