Proceedings, International Conference on Disaster Risk Mitigation, Dhaka, Bangladesh, September 23 - 24, 2017 APPLICATION OF GIS AND REMOTE SENSING IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF FLOOD MANAGEMENT A. Faisal 1 and H. A. H. Khan 2 ABSTRACT Disasters are an uncertain and unavoidable event in nature, which affect adversely social, economic, environmental and humanitarian sectors. The main objective of the study is to identify a significant pattern of a certain disaster over time using Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) applications to understand its nature which will help to solve complex planning and management problem and decision making. It will provide a starting point for researchers on a direction of strategy making to reduce the damage. Obtaining Multi-temporal spatial data from Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) wavelengths and sensors, give a framework to pretend the nature of the disaster in GIS. Satellite covers a larger area than any other platform to analyze micro climate and damage detection in large scale natural disaster. This review paper will work as a tool for applying GIS & RS in disaster management. This technology can be utilized in some phase of a disaster management such as prevention, preparedness, relief, reconstruction, warming and monitoring and will create scope for further analysis for disaster management. Keyword: Remote Sensing, Geographic Information System, Pattern identifying, Strategy making Introduction Flood is a common disaster in this subcontinent. It affects a lot of people. According to registered disaster data, from the time period of 1990 to 1999, 13% of total disaster happened in Europe, mostly 42% occurs in Asia. Flood normally occurs in monsoon season from June to September. It has caused many devastations in Bangladesh in many time. 1966,1987,1988, 1998 these are some remarkable year for the flood. Bangladesh has suffered from another flood in July, this year. Due to heavy runoff from the Himalaya, riverbank areas mostly Uttarbanga (Northern portion) of Bangladesh has suffered from flood. In addition, the flood is a combined effect of the inadequate drainage system, river embankment (Farakka Badh), filling up the river. As Bangladesh is a riverine country, the flood is one of the prime concern. In this review paper, it is shown, how the pattern of the flood over time could be specified by using GIS & RS applications. The advantage of using GIS is not the only visualization of the flood situation but also scope for further flood analysis (Hausmann et al., 1998). Flood mapping shows the possibility of hazard and predicts the next flood season (Godschalk, 1991). In addition, change of wetland in spatial and temporal dynamics can be quantified obtaining images from four Landsat and processing through some classification algorithm and the post classification change detection technique in GIS environment. This will help to save wetlands and flood water can discharge faster. It will help to reduce damage and save more lives by analyzing and detecting flood nature and pattern. Applications of Remote Sensing in Flooded Area Application of Optical Remote Sensing Remote Sensing can be used as a tool of mapping flooded area. This tool is not only a new technology but also came from the 20 th century. In the initial stage, Multi Spectral Scanner (MSS) with 80 m resolution was available from Landsat. The Landsat was used for flood mitigation in the USA. The MSS was suitable for distinguishing water from the dry soil with band 7 (0.8-1.1 μm) due to near infrared range of the spectrum 1 Undergraduate student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET), Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh 2 Undergraduate student, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology (RUET), Rajshahi-6204, Bangladesh Email of Corresponding Author – jfaisal.abdullah06@gmail.com