**1. Introduction**

Floods are amongst the most common natural disaster across the globe. They pose a threat not only to the environment but also to society as they endanger lives, properties and livelihoods of the people. The report and analysis collected by UNISDR and the Belgianbased Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) highlighted that in the year 2021, the impacts of floods were felt heavily across the developing countries in Africa and Asia [1]. For populous continent such as Asia, around 42% of the global flood events occurred between 1950–2020, which affected around 3.65 billion people and economic losses accounted to USD 556 billion [1,2]. Within Asia, the south Asian region is highly vulnerable to flood impacts. Recent estimates for the South Asian region shows that, between 2000 and 2020, these countries have experienced 11% of the world's natural disasters and 12% of floods and droughts, making over 700 million people and 190 million ha of agricultural land vulnerable [1]. Considering the increasing global temperature, unplanned urban growth and environmental degradation, it is likely that the frequency and severity of flood risks will increase in the exposed countries such as Bangladesh, India and Nepal [3]. Additionally, for largely agrarian countries such as India and Bangladesh, these changes especially threaten the agriculture sector, as it increases the ambiguity for the small-scale and poor farmers whose livelihoods are dependent on the agricultural production in these regions.

For a large and populous country like India, the increasing weather variability and the subsequent impact of disasters such as floods is concerning. For instance, official

**Citation:** Koppa, N.; Amarnath, G. Geospatial Assessment of Flood-Tolerant Rice Varieties to Guide Climate Adaptation Strategies in India. *Climate* **2021**, *9*, 151. https:// doi.org/10.3390/cli9100151

Received: 12 August 2021 Accepted: 3 October 2021 Published: 13 October 2021

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statistics reveal that 15% of the total area in India (which amounts to approximately 49.82 million hectares) is extremely vulnerable to floods [4]. Moreover, the variable summer monsoon in India has often precipitated floods, especially in the basins of the Himalayan rivers. These large river basins, such as the Indus, Ganges and Brahmaputra, cause significant monsoon runoff, leading to immense flooding in the plains [5]. Considering that these rich and fertile plains are used for agriculture production, frequent floods in the region affects the people dependent on agriculture. One of the most commonly grown crops in the fertile plains of Indo-Gangetic River basin is 'Rice' (also referred to as paddy in this study). Currently, rice is grown across 43.86 million hectare of area and the production level is 104.80 million tonnes in India [6]. The rice crop which requires a lot of water, is commonly sown during the months of July-October i.e., during the monsoon season in India. The rice farmers in this region take a heavy toll as the recurring floods just after crop sowing leads to crop losses. While rice crop can thrive well in flooded soils, the crop is still vulnerable to complete submergence for longer days and around 16% of the world's rice production area is affected by recurring submergence due to flash floods [7–9]. These recurring impacts of floods in India necessitate improving the farmer's knowledge with regards to adapting and coping methods along with improving flood-resilient infrastructure to reduce the damaging impacts on farming communities.
