Assessment of the water inundation area due to the tropical cyclone Bulbul (2019) in the selected districts of West Bengal, India with the application of RS and GIS tools

Flood is one of the most commonly occurring natural disasters affecting lives and properties. One of the major causes of flood in low-lying areas or coastal areas is cyclones. The paper aims to assess the effect of cyclone Bulbul that occurred on 9th November 2019 and water inundation caused in South 24 Parganas, East Medinipur, and North 24 Parganas districts of West Bengal. Sentinel 1 data of 10 m spatial resolution for pre and post-event was used for the study. Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) tools were utilized to process and analyse the SAR data. The output of the study was prepared in the form of an illustrative water inundation map. The analysis result showed that out of the three districts, South 24 Parganas showed the maximum changes in the water inundation after the event. The changes in the water inundated area from pre-event to post-event were 99.922 km 2 to 149.22 km 2 ; 196.36 km 2 to 195.93 km 2 and 497.27 km 2 to 505.14 km 2 for South 24 Pargana, East Medinipur, and North 24 Pargana districts, respectively. From the study, it was concluded that RS and GIS applications are convenient, effective, and fast techniques for the assessment of water inundation caused due to natural disasters.