INDOFLOODS: A Comprehensive Database for Flood Events in India Enhanced with Catchment Attributes

The Indian Observational Flood Events Database (INDOFLOODS) is a unique flood event database designed to advance flood research and management in India. This database integrates long-term station discharge observations with official flooding thresholds to provide detailed historical flood event information.

Key hydrological data include:

start and end date and time of flooding

peak flood water level (with corresponding dates)

peak discharge (with corresponding dates)

flood volume

event duration

time to peak, and

recession time.

In addition to flooding details, the database includes metadata such as upstream catchment area, geographic coordinates, and river and tributary names. It is further enhanced with extensive:

geomorphological,

climatological,

event-scale precipitation,

land cover,

soil,

lithology,

and anthropogenic characteristics derived at the catchment scale.

Catchment boundary shapefiles are also provided to facilitate users' extension of the database as per their needs.

Contents of the Database:

Variables description

Metadata

Flood events

Catchment characteristics

Precipitation variables

Catchment boundary shapefiles

Please refer to the Variables description file (variables_description_indofloods.pdf) for a complete list of variables and their descriptions.

For detailed information about this database and its development, please refer to the original research article published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS):

Kuntla, S. K., & Saharia, M. (2025). INDOFLOODS: A comprehensive database for flood events in India enhanced with catchment attributes. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 106(2), E333–E343. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0008.1

Disclaimer

The INDOFLOODS database on this web portal is openly accessible for academic and research purposes. While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the data, the authors do not assume responsibility for errors, omissions, or misuse. Users must cite the INDOFLOODS database and the associated research article published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society (BAMS) when utilizing this data and acknowledge that all interpretations and conclusions are their own. We also encourage users to cite or acknowledge the original sources of catchment variables per their respective data usage policies.

To Be Cited:

Kuntla, S. K., & Saharia, M. (2025). INDOFLOODS: A comprehensive database for flood events in India enhanced with catchment attributes. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 106(2), E333–E343. https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-24-0008.1

Kuntla, S. K., & Saharia, M. (2025). INDOFLOODS: A Comprehensive Database for Flood Events in India Enhanced with Catchment Attributes [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14584654

Additional Information:

The INDOFLOODS database doesn't contain data for the Ganga and Brahmaputra basins. Interested users may contact the authors to request the complete dataset, subject to a reasonable request.

Contacts:

Dr. Sai Kiran Kuntla: [e-mail]

Dr. Manbendra Saharia: [e-mail]