EVERY year, almost one-third of Bangladesh is flooded. However, because of topographical characteristics, the regions of the country experience varied degrees of flooding; some parts may be under deep floodwater, others unaffected. Flooding is beneficial only within certain limits of timing, duration, and magnitude (Paul 1984; Rasid and Paul 1987). A normal flood, known as borsha in Bangladesh, generally is associated with monsoon rains that occur between June and October. The residents adjust to it as a part of life. Indeed, although normal floods may cause some damage to crops and properties, they are widely considered a blessing for agriculture, because floodwaters provide soil moisture and plant nutrients from both nitrogen-fixing blue-green algae and decomposing plant remains (Brammer 1990b, 164). Abnormal floods, known as bonna, occur once every few years and, because of their unpredictability, also inundate houses and cause serious losses to life and property. Villagers regard a bonna as undesirable (Islam 1980; Alam 1990). Although the people of Bangladesh have evolved numerous adaptive strategies to benefit from normal flooding, an abnormal one surpasses their ability to adjust. The extent of damage caused by both normal and abnormal floods varies not only spatially but also from year to year. Several studies have examined the extent of crop damage caused by flooding (Montgomery 1985; Brammer 1990a), but they have virtually ignored the temporal dimension of flood damage. The objective of this article is to study the spatial patterns of damage to rice crops resulting from flooding during a specific period, 1962 to 1988. The disastrous floods of 1987 and 1988 generated much international and national interest in finding a permanent solution to the chronic flood problem in Bangladesh. Soon after the 1988 flood, four reports were commissioned by the French and Japanese governments, by the United Nations Development Programme, and by the United States Agency for International Development (Boyce 1990, 425). At the request of the government of Bangladesh and several donor countries, the World Bank assented to coordinate the various flood-control initiatives suggested by those reports and prepared a five-year plan of action to extend from 1990 to 1995. This program, known as the Flood Action Plan (FAP), was approved in 1989 and currently is being implemented by the Bangladesh Ministry of Irrigation, Flood Control, and Water Development. FAP essentially focuses on heavy-engineering solutions. Under the plan, the two main rivers, the Brahmaputra and the Jamuna, would be embanked on both sides; later, the Padma and Meghna rivers could be similarly embanked (World Bank 1989, 93). However, opposition to a structural solution to the flood problem is strong in Bangladesh (Miah 1988; Islam 1990). Many independent experts and concerned Bangladeshi have criticized FAP because of its structural emphasis, its use of scarce land for embankment, and its ecological effects. The fear is that FAP will transform Bangladesh into a "land without water" (Islam 1990). The debate between the multitude of citizen groups and the donor agencies sponsoring FAP is yet to be resolved. FAP comprises a phased program of flood-control activities supported by surveys, special studies, and pilot projects. Different environmental and social studies have been undertaken. The next two years will be devoted to project preparation; construction of embankments will not commence until the final year. The research reported here may not influence any component of FAP, but it might suggest whether the construction of huge embankments is absolutely necessary in view of the possible long-term crop loss due to flooding. Construction of embankments will cost the equivalent of U.S.$10 billion and will require some twenty years to complete (Bingham 1989, 42); additionally, annual operating costs are projected at some U.S.$500,000. Because the lion's share of the Bangladesh national budget comes from foreign sources, the embankment proposal would require a further rise in the already severe foreign-debt burden. …