Abstract
The Brahmaputra River of South Asia is the fourth largest river in the world in terms of annual discharge. The lower Brahmaputra River basin is susceptible to catastrophic flooding with major social, economic, and public health impacts. There is relatively little rainfall and snowpack information for the watershed, and the system is poorly understood hydrologically. Using a combination of available remotely sensed and gauge data, this study analyzes snow cover, rainfall, and monsoon period discharge for a 14-yr time period (1986–99). It is found that interannual rainfall variability is low and is a weak predictor of monsoon discharge volumes. Strong evidence is found, however, that maximum spring snow cover in the upper Brahmaputra basin is a good predictor of the monsoon flood volume. Despite the temporal and spatial limitations of the data, this study’s analysis demonstrates the potential for developing an empirical tool for predicting large flood events that may allow an annual early window for mitigating flood damages in the lower Brahmaputra basin, home to 300 million people.
* Corresponding author address: Shithi Kamal-Heikman, Department of Geography, 1832 Ellison Hall, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-4060.
