Distresssing Situation
Millions of people living in the river delta regions of South Asia are devastated by massive amounts of flooding every year! Homes and infrastructure are damaged or even washed away, fields are destroyed by rushes of ocean water, and worst of all, lives are lost.
Rural flooding, Mekong Delta, 2011 [2]
Geopolitical map, South Asia [3]
Overview of Regions
Mekong Delta
The Mekong delta, located in southern Vietnam, is home to over 17 million people. Vietnam is the 4th largest producer of rice in the world, while the US is ranked 12th. The delta region is responsible for over 50% of rice production for the entire country.
Satilite image, Mekong Delta, 1996 [4]
Satilite image, Ganges Delta, undated [5]
Ganges Delta
The Ganges delta, located in eastern India and nearly all of Bangladesh, is the both the largest and the most densely populated river delta in the world. Between 125-143 million people there.
Seasonal Effects
- Wet season - June to November
- Dry season - December to May
- These seasons are drastically different. Dry seasons involve droughts and river navigation issues, resulting in disrupted agriculture and industry. During the wet season the delta is faced with major flooding and rainfall.
Wet Season
Dry Season
Wet Season
Dry Season
Wet Season
Dry Season
Wet Season
Dry Season
Flood Factors
Several factors contribute to the flooding in these deltas including precipitation, inundation, discharge and waves. Click on a year to observe how the selected factor behaved during that year. The plotted circles represent reported incidents. Place your cursor over the circles for incident info.
Discharge
The amount of water entering the river delta measured in m^3/s
Gushing dam, courtesy of TravelPod [6]
Zachary Tessler, mentor for this project [10]
About This Website
This website was designed by three undergraduate students at the City College of New York as part of a course in the Fall 2014 semester. The name of the course was Data Visualization, and it was taught by Professor Michael Grossberg of the Computer Science department.
The foundation of this website is the flood data that was used in the 'Seasonal Effects' and 'Flood Factors' page sections. This data was provided by Zachary Tessler, a post graduate researcher at the CUNY Environmental CrossRoads Initiative. Zachary focuses on environmental change in river deltas and implications for natural and human systems in the coastal zone. The website designers were very fortunate to have Zachary as their domain expert and mentor for this project.
Image Credits
- Urban flooding, Ganges Delta, 2007 - Flickr.com
- Rural flooding, Mekong Delta, 2011 - Flickr.com
- Geopolitical map, South Asia - Nationsonline.org
- Satilite image, Mekong Delta, 1996 - Wikipedia.org
- Satilite image, Ganges Delta, undated - Wikipedia.org
- Gushing dam - Travelpod.com
- Urban flooding, Ganges Delta, 1988 - eBanglapedia.com
- Rainfall - Wallpaperup.com
- Ocean waves - Flickr.com
- Zachary Tessler, mentor for this project - ZacharyTessler.com
