Quantifying the relative contributions of climate change and ENSO to flood occurrence in Bangladesh

Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to flood hazards, and its flood risk is projected to increase with global warming. In addition to climate change, internal climate variation, such as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), influences flooding in many rivers worldwide. However, the impact of internal climate variability on flooding in Bangladesh remains unclear due to the limited observations. Here, we assess the impacts of ENSO and climate change on flood occurrence in Bangladesh using a large-ensemble climate simulation dataset and a global river model (CaMa-Flood). After separating 6000 years of simulation (100-member ensemble river simulations for 1950-2010) into El Nino, La Nina, and neutral years, we calculated the extent to which each ENSO stage increased flood occurrence probability relative to the neutral state using the fraction of attributable risk method. In addition, we estimated the impact of historical climate change on past flood occurrence through a comparison of simulations with and without historical global warming. Under the no-global-warming climate, La Nina increased the occurrence probability of a 10 year return period flood at Hardinge Bridge on the Ganges River by 38% compared to neutral years. The influence of La Nina or El Nino state on flood occurrence probability in the Brahmaputra River at Bahadurabad station is negligible. Historical global warming increased the occurrence of flooding in the Ganges River, the Brahmaputra River, and their confluence by 59%, 44%, and 55%, respectively. The impact of ENSO on flood occurrence probability decreased in the historical simulation, likely due to the conflation of ENSO and climate change signals, and no significant correlation between ENSO and flood occurrence was detected when only small-ensemble simulations were used. These findings suggest that the use of large-ensemble climate simulation datasets is essential for precise attribution of the impacts of internal climate variability on flooding in Bangladesh.

Automated summary

This study assessed the impacts of ENSO and climate change on flood occurrence in Bangladesh using a large-ensemble climate simulation dataset and a global river model. The results showed that historical global warming increased flooding in Bangladesh, while the impact of ENSO on flood occurrence probability decreased in the historical simulation.