Exploring Flood Factors
in the Mekong and Ganges River Deltas

Urban flooding, Ganges Delta, 2007 [1]


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

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.


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

  1. Urban flooding, Ganges Delta, 2007 - Flickr.com
  2. Rural flooding, Mekong Delta, 2011 - Flickr.com
  3. Geopolitical map, South Asia - Nationsonline.org
  4. Satilite image, Mekong Delta, 1996 - Wikipedia.org
  5. Satilite image, Ganges Delta, undated - Wikipedia.org
  6. Gushing dam - Travelpod.com
  7. Urban flooding, Ganges Delta, 1988 - eBanglapedia.com
  8. Rainfall - Wallpaperup.com
  9. Ocean waves - Flickr.com
  10. Zachary Tessler, mentor for this project - ZacharyTessler.com