How does flooding affect the environment and the lives of people?

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  1. By: katherine smith

What is Flooding?

Floods occur naturally on many rivers, forming an area known as the flood plain. A flood occurs when there is a large increase in water levels.

A flood that rises and falls quickly with little or no advance warning is called a flash flood. Flash floods usually result from heavy rainfall in a very short space of time in a relatively small area.

What causes Flooding?

There are many factors for why Floods happen, such as: -

The Weather- Heavy rainfall or monsoon rains can leave the land saturated and land cannot absorb it. Typhoons and Hurricanes can create extremely powerful storm surges, high tides and Tsunamis. This causes costal flooding

Deposition of silt- this means a rise in river bed levels, reducing channel capacity. 

Mountain and Ice caps- As temperatures change Snow caps start to melt and water levels rise.

How does flooding affect the environment and the lives of people?

  • Physical damage- Structures and buildings get damaged due to floodwater and a chance of possible Landslides. Roads can be blocked off and bridges can be destroyed.
  • Casualties- People and livestock die due to drowning. It can also lead to epidemics and diseases.
  • Water supplies- Contamination of water making it unclean to drink (drinking may cause diseases such as Typhoid and Cholera etc..) Clean water may become unavailable
  • Crops and food supplies- Shortage of food crops can be caused due to loss of entire harvest and fish. 
  • Communications- communications can be cut off and wires made a dangerous hazard.

Positive

  • Deposition of silt onto the floodplain makes soil fertile, which is good for agriculture
  • Regular flooding on floodplains helps support farming.

What can be done to solve the problem of flooding?

Floods can be managed so that the scale of disaster is lower such as:

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  • Rivers can be straightened
  • If there are levees they can be raised higher
  • Dredging river beds (removing sediment and silt)
  • Building dams and reservoirs
  • Planting more trees

  1. Case Study 1

  2. MEDC: New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina) Flood 2005

  1. Like many costal and river delta cities New Orleans had been vulnerable to flooding in the past, but when Hurricane Katrina struck on August 29th to September 1st 2005 most of New Orleans was left under water and the whole city was in complete chaos.

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