Bangladesh has again this year been hit by serious floods. The extent of the flooding is in many areas comparable to the flood record years of 1988 and 1998. Not least in the Meghna basin where record high rainfall and water levels have been reported, but also in the Ganges and the Brahmaputra basins the situation is very serious.
The Bangladesh Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FF&WC) operates under the Bangladesh Water Development Board and is responsible for the production and issue of flood forecasts and warnings throughout the country. A 24-72 hour forecast for the water levels in the national river systems is constantly made available for the government authorities, the press, NGO’s, Embassies and other institutions.
The updated flooding situation can be seen on the FF&WC web site: www.ffwc.net. Comprehensive flooding information covering past, present and forecasted flooding can be found here presented in a simple, intuitive manner.
The core of the river modelling system at FF&WC is MIKE 11 and MIKE FLOOD WATCH developed by DHI Water & Environment in Denmark. More than 7.000 km river and more than 80.000 km2 catchment areas is included in the so called ‘supermodel’ setup.
A comprehensive modelling technology transfer programme has been implemented with support from DANIDA. The current support for consolidation and strengthening of the technology transfer will complete in 2005.
For more information please contact Jacob Høst-Madsen (jhm@dhi.dk).