Areal extent of the 1988 flood in Bangladesh: How much did the satellite imagery show?

This paper presents the methods and results of visual interpretation of satellite imagery for estimating areal extent of the 1988 flood in Bangladesh. The main limitation of this method was that cloud-free images were not available for the peak flood period in the first week of September. Relatively cloud-free images on three selected dates in the last three weeks of September showed that areas of inundation on those dates ranged from 44000 to 60000 km2 ± 5% (31 to 42% of Bangladesh). The Government of Bangladesh official estimates of the areal extent of flooding were tentative in nature, since these were based on a choropleth map of relative proportions (percentages) of flooding in different parts of the country. The official estimate of the maximum extent of flooding was 82000 km2 (57% of Bangladesh), i.e. 15 to 26% larger than the area shown on satellite imagery. The actual extent of flooding was certainly larger than the estimates from satellite imagery but, perhaps, smaller than the official estimates, since a reduction of 15 to 26% of flood area in one to three weeks seemed unlikely. An alternative method of mapping flood-affected areas by using newspaper-interpreted data was attempted, but the method had limited values because of reporting bias.