IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/nathaz/v99y2019i1d10.1007_s11069-019-03741-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Flood 2018 and the status of reservoir-induced seismicity in Kerala, India

Author

Listed:
  • S. M. Ramasamy

    (Bharathidasan University)

  • S. Gunasekaran

    (Alagappa University)

  • N. Rajagopal

    (Alagappa University)

  • J. Saravanavel

    (Bharathidasan University)

  • C. J. Kumanan

    (Bharathidasan University)

Abstract

Floods in India, which were once mostly confined to southern part of the Himalayan region, have now started spreading over to many regions of India, including the urban conglomerations and the desert tracts of Rajasthan too. The flood that occurred in Kerala during August 2018 is one such major disaster that caused huge damages to man, infrastructure and properties, estimated to the worth of 200 billion USD. Besides, they are expected to cause a chain of other hazards, and one among these is reservoir-induced seismicity (RIS). The RIS occurs in deep reservoirs with high water column. While the water column increases the total stress on the earth crust, the infiltration causes pore pressure increase which in turn decreases the effective strength of the earth crust. Such changes in the stress regime cause RIS (earthquake). The rocks of the Western Ghat Mountains of Kerala are highly deformed with folds and faults of Archean/Precambrian tectonics and have undergone morphological modifications during Pleistocene tectonics. The region is also seismically active. Further, the Western Ghats cover vast area in Kerala; almost all the dams and reservoirs are located in the highly folded, fractured, faulted and along the deep valleys of the Western Ghats. In the context of recent August 2018 flood disaster, the probability of RIS has increased. So, GIS analysis was carried out using various geosystems, seismicity, distribution of dams, zones of heavy rainfall 2018 and the flood inundation, which indicates that 50% of the reservoirs are highly prone to RIS. The RIS would have occurred during August 2018 flood itself, but for the release of water from the overflowing reservoirs. However, owing to the proneness of the region to RIS, optimal water management is necessary for the dams and reservoirs of Kerala.

Suggested Citation

  • S. M. Ramasamy & S. Gunasekaran & N. Rajagopal & J. Saravanavel & C. J. Kumanan, 2019. "Flood 2018 and the status of reservoir-induced seismicity in Kerala, India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(1), pages 307-319, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:99:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-019-03741-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s11069-019-03741-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-019-03741-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11069-019-03741-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. T. V. Padma, 2018. "Mining and dams exacerbated devastating Kerala floods," Nature, Nature, vol. 561(7721), pages 13-14, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ajith G. Nair & K. Sunil Kumar & Sonu V. Sabu, 2024. "Classification of Sub-Watersheds with Respect to Flooding Susceptibility in a Tropical River Basin Using Multi Criteria Approach Based on VIKOR," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 38(13), pages 5029-5053, October.
    2. Shraddha Jain, 2020. "Human Development, Gender and Capability Approach," Indian Journal of Human Development, , vol. 14(2), pages 320-332, August.
    3. R. Rajesh & Chandrasekharan Rajendran, 2019. "Grey- and rough-set-based seasonal disaster predictions: an analysis of flood data in India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(1), pages 395-435, May.
    4. Sumit Das & Gianvito Scaringi, 2021. "River flooding in a changing climate: rainfall-discharge trends, controlling factors, and susceptibility mapping for the Mahi catchment, Western India," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 109(3), pages 2439-2459, December.
    5. James Patterson & Carina Wyborn & Linda Westman & Marie Claire Brisbois & Manjana Milkoreit & Dhanasree Jayaram, 2021. "The political effects of emergency frames in sustainability," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 4(10), pages 841-850, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:99:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-019-03741-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.