Valuing the economic impact of river floods and early flood warning for households in Bangladesh

This study quantifies the economic value of increased flood warning time to households in the Jamuna River floodplain of Bangladesh. To do so, the authors estimated three distinct values related to households living in the river flood plains: the economic impact of 2016 flooding, the economic impact incurred by flood preparedness activities that were undertaken in 2016, and the economic impact of increased flood warning time to conduct preparedness activities in two hypothetical scenarios in which households received 3- and 8-day warnings.

A related key finding is that most households in the Jamuna River are not receiving an early warning at all. Communication networks for populations living in the Jamuna River flood plain are largely informal and difficult to penetrate. It is also difficult to develop early warning messages that are actionable for geographically dispersed communities. Thus, priority should be given to combined efforts to improve early warning technologies that can predict floods with those that mobilize flood damage mitigation efforts in vulnerable areas.