How and where do people live? Perhaps unsurprisingly, floods tend to affect low-lying areas most severely. Very large and powerful floods can even dislodge buildings from their foundations and move them. 5. The most common cause of flooding is prolonged rainfall. Monsoon season in India occurs in the late summer months and is caused by the seasonal reversal of winds in the area. Floods occur when the discharge volume of the river becomes too large for the channel to contain. The recurrence interval is a way of measuring the frequency of a flood of a specific size occurring. What is dredging? 6. On the 16th of August, 2004, the small town of Boscastle was almost completely destroyed in the space of just two hours when a 1 in 400 year flash flood occurred at around 3pm and inundated most of the town. The other problem with the recurrence interval is that it’s based on past data. The river was forced to flow into a channel that it hadn’t flown through in over 100 years. Case study of a flood in South Africa. It was estimated to cost $500 million to build new embankments, strengthen existing embankments, improve flood management and improve flood prediction technologies. The Kosi River is highlighted in bright blue. In Bangladesh, for example, melting snow in the Himalayas triggers annual floods in the summer. People don’t like that sort of unpredictability though, so they’ll just blame the scientists/statisticians and say they got it wrong. The scheme also gave $110 to households that did not own their own land so that they could go out and buy some. The World Bank gave significant funds to help Bihar recover and rebuild after the disaster. The European Union (EU) Floods Directive defines a flood as a covering by water of land not normally covered by water. The big economic effect of a flood is property damage. Rivers deposit new nutrient-rich sediments when they flood and so floodplains have traditionally been good for farming. As well as prolonged rainfall, brief periods of heavy rain can also lead to floods. Although the dam protects crops and settlements from the annual floods, farmers must now use fertilizers to feed their crops. The Laingsburg flood (25 January 1981) … The disaster ended up costing nearly $542 million according to some reports. Cities experiencing housing shortage. If the basin is circul… Regular news stories about flooding in the UK make this a topical issue - one to which many students can relate. More than anything, the recurrence interval is a nice way of describing a complicated topic using simple Maths. The geography of the state of Texas makes it vulnerable to some of the heaviest rainstorms in the world, according to data from the Flood Safety Education Project. In two hours over 60mm of rain fell in Boscastle and by the end of the flood, nearly 200mm had fallen. When 100,000 Ha of land was flooded, most of their food was destroyed. Flooding A river floods when the water normally flowing in the channel overflows its banks and spreads out onto the surrounding land. River Keyword search Enter one of the keywords listed on the page and find out what they mean. Flooding Can Help Protect Wetlands From Climate Change # geography # wetlands Targeted flooding may be one tool that conservationists and wetland restoration specialists have to make wetland areas more resilient in the face of climate change. Plants slow down water as it runs over the land, giving it time to enter the ground. The location of Bihar in India. Prince Charles visited the town 2 days after the flood and donated a large sum of money to the town. The biggest, most obvious effect is death. Flooding as a source of nutrients was important to Egyptians along the Nile River until the Aswan Dam was built in the 1960s. 4. During the months of August and September in 2008 there was a long period of heavy rainfall along the foothills of the Himalayas. They are commonly seasonal, as in the UK where in winter a combination of frozen, sodden ground and higher than average rainfall will lead to a river going into spate … Repairing bridges and other types of infrastructure is very costly. Figures vary because government figures don’t include missing people while figures from aid agencies do. Flood is a term used to denote an enormous amount of water. The permeability of the soil and rock in a drainage basin is a big factor in flooding. Please contribute it! Scroll down to the section on the hydrological cycle. The frequency of tidal flooding can be attributed to some of the symptoms of climate change, s… being installed in the new buildings. Aid agencies were dispatched to Bihar and were especially important in ensuring that the lower classes of society were given aid. Natural flood management guidance from the Woodland Trust. Floods can cause extensive damage to infrastructure such as power lines, roads, water pipes etc. If the river’s valley has steep sides, water will quickly enter a river increasing the river’s discharge. If a flood happens in an empty field, then the damage from flooding may be relatively mild. You should really enable it for this site but most things should work without it. This provides a useful set of visual aids to help in teaching the various forms natural flood management can take. If the flood happens in a city or a suburb, then flooding can cause catastrophic damage and take human lives. Perhaps unsurprisingly, floods tend to affect low-lying areas most severely. 6. The Kosi River is highlighted in bright blue. Just a few hours after the river flooded, a search and rescue operation was underway which lasted until 2:30am the next day. The New Madrid Overflow in the image above was created with the recognition that the Mississippi River sometimes simply cannot be contained by levees and must be allowed to flood.Not all the consequences of flooding are negative. The River’s floodplain had been urbanised reducing infiltration and increasing surface runoff. The River Valency’s valley has a high relief and steep sides so surface runoff was increased. Coastal Floods. After heavy precipitation, the discharge will rise even more and floods are likely, especially at confluences (where a tributary meets the river) as this is where discharge is highest. Distribution of cities in the world. Floods will commonly inundate farmland because farmland normally develops on floodplains. You seem to have disabled JavaScript. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. River Processes . With no vegetation, the soil is highly susceptible to mass wasting which can cause large volumes of soil to enter a river and reduce the river’s capacity. 2. When the plan to reconstruct infrastructure was laid out, it was expected that 90 bridges and 290km of road would be reconstructed, benefiting 2 million people. A flood warning was issued for parts of Cornwall at 3:30pm but Boscastle wasn’t specifically warned. In LEDCs, famines can follow floods which can lead to even more deaths. River Thames. Its borders are highlighted in blue. When buildings were reconstructed, they were done so in an environmentally friendly manner with insulation, double glazing etc. Raw sewage was washed out to sea and into the River Valency. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 German license. Floods… 11 Days after the flood people were allowed to return to their homes to salvage their belongings. … High water levels have also caused small dams to break, wreaking havoc downstream. Even if the ground is too wet to absorb more water, plants still slow the water’s passage and increase the time between rainfall and the water’s arrival in a stream; this could keep all the water falling over a region to hit the stream at once. Not only this, it can lead to a decline in the local economy as businesses are unable to operate without power or road connections. Volcanoes. This mightn’t be until the end of winter, so potentially several months. Urbanisation (generally) involves the laying down of tarmac and concrete, impermeable substances that will increase surface runoff into the river and therefore increase the river’s discharge. If there is a possibility of flooding in your area, immediately move to higher ground. River floods. If a river has a lot of tributaries, the river’s discharge will be much higher because lots of water will be entering it from its tributaries. The intense rain, linked to a typhoon system caught many residents out and left hundreds of people stranded in areas and having to go to their roofs to avoid imminent danger. Scientists point to this trend of sunny day flooding as one way that climate change is affecting our natural environment. The technical definition of a flood is when the water leaves the main river channel or defined edges. Put most simply, a flood is an overflow of water in one place. When there is an outflow of water in a place, it is said to be flooded. Floodwater that is contaminated with sewage will pollute rivers and land when it drains back into the river. Characteristics of floods – analysis and interpretation of flood hydrographs. A map of Bihar showing the major rivers flowing through the state. In 2007, these defences were put to the test and a much smaller, more controlled flood occurred. Flooding is a natural part of the yearly cycle of a river, creating flood plains, levees and various other features. Coastal Floods usually occur along coastal areas. The monsoon brought heavy rainfall to the foothills of the Himalayas and dramatically increased the discharge of the Kosi. While the recurrence interval’s accuracy increases as you add more data, the reliability decreases because the river’s flooding patterns will have changed over time. Reconstruction didn’t begin until 2005 as the council waited on a report from hydrologists to determine the recurrence interval of the flood. Earthquakes . Slides prepared are to be used alongside textbook 2. River waterfalls. The meltwater can enter rivers and greatly increase the river’s discharge leading to a flood. This may happen if the underlying rock is impermeable —lacking pores, tiny holes that allow water through. A flash flood may do its damage miles from where the rain actually falls if the water travels far down a dry streambed so that the flash flood occurs far from the location of the original storm. In doing so, it flooded a large portion of Bihar. If a river’s drainage basin or floodplain has been heavily urbanised, a river becomes much more prone to flooding. Climate change is a physical factor that could, potentially, be a human factor. To stop roads and streets from flooding, humans will often build storm drains that collect rainwater and channel it into a river or stream. This improves the fertility of the floodplain and can improve agricultural yield in an area (assuming the floodwater wasn’t polluted). Floods can occur for a variety of reasons, and their effects can be minimized in several different ways. River words. How might this be linked to rising sea Australian floods – 2010 . Flooding can also be divided into different categories according to their location: 1. Through Bihar flows the Kosi River, a tributary to the Ganges. After the events of the flood, people were less willing to travel to Boscastle because of the (low) risk of another flood occurring. As the River Valency flowed through Boscastle, its channel had been walled off preventing it from adjusting to the increased discharge and limiting its efficiency, ultimately causing it flood. Water & power supplies were taken out during the flood. A levee in one location may just force the high water up or downstream and cause flooding there. Flood risk and flood management. The approximate location of Boscastle in the UK. ↩, Weird number, I know, I’m just trying to produce a nice round answer here. The river valleys are steep and composed of shale, an impermeable rock. In a MEDC, property damage is often extensive as people have lots of expensive possessions. A large drainage basin means that the river’s catchment area is large so it will collect a lot of water, increasing discharge. Second, the sewage gets into people’s homes which is just horrible, disgusting and incredibly difficult to clean. These floods are often annual, occurring every year when snow melts in the spring. Vegetation helps bind soil too. The River Valency had a confluence with the River Jordan directly in Boscastle leading to huge volumes of water flowing through the town when both river’s discharge increased. Flooding occurs when a river’s discharge exceeds its channel’s volume causing the river to overflow onto the area surrounding the channel known as the floodplain. Inclusive housing. Rainwater will enter the river much faster than it would if the ground wasn’t saturated leading to higher discharge levels and floods. Conversely, if a basin is sparsely vegetated then there will be no interception and so more water will enter a river. Houses were flooded and silt, sewage & debris was deposited inside of them. It is one of the poorest states in India where the caste class system, despite its lack of legality, is still in widespread use. When the snow does melt, large volumes of meltwater will enter the river increasing its discharge and triggering floods. Heavily vegetated lands are less likely to experience flooding. The increase in discharge can be triggered by several events. We’d describe it as a 1 in 100 year flood. Consequences of housing shortage. Zadie smith essay on writing: an interactive approach to writing essays and research reports in psychology 3rd ed essay on electronic money, what's an interpretive essay how to incorporate a poem in an … River Findhorn in flood near Randolph's Leap. This will produce a high peak discharge and can lead to flash floods. Using Google Earth. Flash floods induce severe impacts in both the built and the natural environment. Flood risk and flood management are popular issues in the geography curriculum. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide.Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. These sediments provide habitats for animals, and the periodic movement of sediment is crucial to the lives of several types of organisms. A large drainage basin means that the river’s catchment area is large so it will collect a lot of water, increasing discharge. Housing shortage. Floods (weather events where water temporarily covers land it normally doesn't cover) can happen anywhere, but features like geography can actually increase your risk for specific types of flooding.Here are the main types of floods to look out for (each is named for the weather condition or geography that cause them): 1. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. ↩. 3 million people were made homeless and sent to refuge camps. This (obviously) reduces vegetation cover, reducing infiltration and increasing surface runoff into a river. River models. The flood will have washed sewage and pollutants into the Kosi River, polluting it and killing off some wildlife. Flooding is often more severe in areas that have been recently logged. The economic impact of infrastructure damage and unemployment is larger in MEDCs since these countries have modern and expensive infrastructure in place. The number of tributaries flowing into a river affects the likelihood of floods. There are three main processes that affect rivers and their valleys. There was the potential for insurance prices to rise as a result of the flood but this was unlikely because of the rarity of a flood of this scale. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license. The River Valency flows directly through the town and meets the River Jordan at a confluence in the town. This has two effects. The “lower bridge” was badly damaged when debris blocked it and water pooled behind it. Strategies to manage housing shortage. It was claimed that the rich were evacuated first and given the most emergency food while some members of the “untouchables” (the lowest class in the caste system and Hindu society) weren’t evacuated at all. ↩, This formula is for events with a magnitude (in this case discharge). If the floodwater is polluted by sewage, it will contaminate the farmland and make any food grown on it dangerous to eat. Essays of michel de montaigne. Housing. A floodplain comprises of two sections. The ground had been saturated by previous rainfall. If there’s a sudden “burst” of heavy rain, the rainwater won’t be able to infiltrate fast enough and the water will instead enter the river via surface runoff. Click here to be taken to the Greenfield Geography page. In general, a large flood has a large recurrence interval so it isn’t very frequent. Site design and development by Alex Jackson (), Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, Praise and donation from their duke (The Guardian), Villagers clean up after flash floods (The Guardian), Boscastle: safe to rebuild (The Guardian), Boscastle reborn as a green beacon (The Guardian), Displaced Boscastle residents return home (The Guardian), ‘No deaths in Boscastle flood’ (The Guardian), Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 German, India: Untouchables suffer ‘relief discrimination’ after flood (The Guardian), India: Up to 2,000 feared dead in Bihar floods (The Guardian), Heavy rain stalls Indian flood relief (The Guardian), Indian government hits back at claims of inadequate supplies in flood zones (The Guardian), Tensions rise over Indian flood relief (The Guardian), Disease outbreak feared in wake of flood (The Guardian), Indian monsoon floods leave a million homeless (The Guardian), Government of Bihar, World Bank & Global Facility for Disaster Reduction & Recovery Report, Proposed Emergency Recovery (The World Bank). For example, floods are welcomed by farmers in Asia as floods support the cultivation of rice crops. For example, a flood with a discharge of 200m3s-1 occurred at some point in the river’s past. Using the formula, this means that a flood of this size is expected to occur once every 100 years (\(\frac{199+1}{2}\)). 1. The approximate location of Boscastle in the UK. There’s nothing to stop a river having a 1 in 1000 year flood and then doing the same the next day. This means that the overall cost of a flood is generally substantially higher in a MEDC than in a LEDC. Make sure your print out your geographyalltheway worksheet and put it into your files in the rivers section. Canvey Island in Essex is very low-lying and increasingly prone to flooding - much to the distress of home-owners there. From a teaching and learning perspective, flooding offers several important opportunities because, in order to make sense of these issues, students … Features of cities. Allegations that the grain wasn’t evenly distributed arose though, with members of the lower class of Indian society being left with minimal amounts of grain while the upper classes received most of the grain. When there are hurricanes and tropical storms which will produce heavy rains, or giant tidal waves created by volcanoes or earthquakes, ocean water may be driven onto the coastal areas and cause coastal floods. Out of a data set spanning 199 years5, this flood was the 2nd largest in terms of discharge. Flood water can travel surprisingly quickly and weighs3 a lot, so people can easily get swept away by floods. Similarly, if the rocks in the area are non-porous or impermeable (such as granite or clay) then water won’t be able to infiltrate into the rocks and will, again, run straight off into the river increasing its discharge. Rivers are dynamic beasts, they change and when they change, so does how they flood. 1. Plants and fish along the Colorado River, for example, depend on seasonal flooding to rearrange sand bars. Page 152 Turn to: Page 152 of Sec 2 Geography textbook 3. Map modified from this map by NordNordWest/Wikipedia. River diagrams. Rivers and floods for kids KS2 learning at Primary School. Floods, especially flash floods, will kill people. In a MEDC, people and governments are better prepared for floods. Geography. Well, in the aftermath of the floods, teachers at Hebden Bridge School invited local kids to find out… Causes of floods. Roads were destroyed, costing money to repair and disrupting trade. This causes major problems for … Dynamic Earth: Introduction to Physical Geography. Map modified from this map by Nilfanion/Wikipedia. Rescue services can be dispatched to a flood quickly in a MEDC whereas in a LEDC, rescue teams mightn’t arrive until several hours after the flood started. 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