Alexia Jablonski November 21, 2008

Flood Hazard Case Study

1. Describe the difference between and provide examples of flash flooding and lag
response flooding.

Flash flood
 Caused by sudden heavy precipitation or dam failures
 Fast-moving
 Dangerous because there is little forewarning
 Caused by low rates of infiltration and interception, which increase surface runoff
(Prof. Stephen A. Nelson from Tulane University)1
o High vegetation cover = high infiltration
o Soil types (desert soil much more prone to flash floods because they
absorb less moisture)
o Frozen ground = less infiltration
o Human constructions such as pavement decreases rate of infiltration
 Example: 2007 Sudan floods
o First occurred on July 7, 2007
o Desert area
o Caused by heavy rain
o According to UN reports2:
 Over 30,000 houses fully destroyed at least
 365,000 people directly affected,
 64 dead and 335 injured
 257 schools destroyed (leaving over 56,000 children without
primary education)
 At least 12,000 livestock, 16,000 chicken, and 96,000 feddans of
crops lost (1 feddan = 4200 square m²)

Sudanese affected by 2007 flood3

1
http://www.tulane.edu/~sanelson/geol204/riverflooding.htm
2
http://www.dawn.com/2007/08/06/rss.htm
http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/EVOD-76AJMP?OpenDocument&rc=1&cc=sdn
3
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/files/images/flood.jpg
Lag response flood
 Has a high lag time: “The time difference between when heavy precipitation
occurs and when peak discharge occurs in the streams draining an area” (Nelson):

 Example: 2007 South Asian Monsoon Floods4

o Caused by monsoons (torrential rains linked with wind patterns) in India,
Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh lasting 20 days
o UNICEF: situation "is being described as the worst flooding in living
memory"
o About 30 million people affected and displaced
o Bangladesh: 2/3 of the country left underwater; huge outbreak of flood-
related diseases such as dysentery; many areas made isolated
o India: more than a thousand people killed; millions of dollars in crops lost
o Nepal: 84 people killed
o Bhutan: several major roads disrupted

Areas affected by flooding in South Asia5

4
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/ib_geography/ib_drainage_basins/ib_south_asian_floods.htm
Family marooned by the flood in South Asia6

2. Use two or more examples of flood events to demonstrate how human activity has
affected stream flow, percolation, and siltation.

Definitions:
Percolation: The movement of water through the pores in soil or permeable rock
Siltation: When a river becomes filled with silt (sedimentary material consisting of very
fine particles intermediate in size between sand and clay)

Example 1: Rajang river, Malaysia, 20077

 Heavy siltation of the river has been caused by soil erosion, which is due to lack
of trees from deforestation upstream
 The government has no policies to control logging
 Silt clogs up the river, making it more likely to flood over its banks
 The town of Sibu, situated on the lower Rajang delta and on low-level terrain,
faces frequent flash floods

5
http://www.geographyalltheway.com/ib_geography/ib_drainage_basins/imagesetc/South_Asia_Flood_July
_3_and_August_15.png
6
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44043000/jpg/_44043442_dhaka_ap203long.jpg
7
http://malaysiadigest.blogspot.com/2008/04/siltation-in-rajang-river-due-to-heavy.html
2007 flood in Sibu8
Example 2: 2007 United Kingdom flood (Wales)9
 Developments like pavement and roads increase make the surface of the ground
less permeable, thus reducing percolation rates and increasing runoff and rate of
stream flow, which leads to floods
 Flash flooding caused by heavy precipitation in June and July 2007
 Schools and roads closed
 Many people evacuated from their houses

Flooding in the town of Corwen10

3. Describe the impact of agriculture and industry on a specific flood event.

Example: New Orleans (Hurricane Katrina)11

 New Orleans is already vulnerable because of its low level altitude
 In New Orleans, as the lower layers of sediment get melted below the crust, new
silt is created and lithifies at the top
 Levees and canals made to accommodate agriculture have diverted this flow of
sediment, decreasing the amount of lithification and making the land sink (called
depressurization)
 Pumping up oil causes the pressure underneath the ground to decrease and the
land to sink even more (Louisiana produces a third of the nation's oil and a quarter
of its natural gas)
 The wetland is also being destroyed from levees and oil extraction, which makes
the city more exposed to open water
 These factors led to the massive destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina
(1,836 deaths)

8
http://i35.photobucket.com/albums/d166/forevermzcm/Flood2small.jpg
9
http://www.conwy.gov.uk/E_MINUTES/e_post2002/e_regulatory/e_planning/e_reports/TAN15_developm
ent%20and%20floodrisk.pdf
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6236728.stm
10
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/6236728.stm
11
http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/environmental/200606katrina.html
Flooded New Orleans12

4. Give an example of a location that has recurring flood events due to allegation of the
land by human beings.

Yangtze River in China:13

 Flooding has become more frequent due to human influence
 Destruction of vegetation has increased soil erosion (area exposed to erosion
doubled in the past 30 years)
 This has increased siltation, leading to a decrease in flood storage capacity and
more likeliness of flooding
 Levees have restricted flood discharge capacity (e.g. Great Jinjiang levee)
 Sand mining has increased flooding because water seeps into mine shafts and
makes them flood (sand mining along the river has been made illegal on the
Yangtze)14

12
http://bbsnews.net/bbsn_photos/topics/hurricane_katrina/uscg_new_orleans_under_water20050829.jpg
13
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6V93-448Y47S-
5&_user=10&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlV
ersion=0&_userid=10&md5=dbceef1e9b8635ff64f07a9e515f7246
14
english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200012/13/eng20001213_57716.html
Map of Yangtze River in China15

Yangtze watershed16

15
http://cache.eb.com/eb/image?id=64287&rendTypeId=4
16
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/6/67/650px-
Map_of_the_Yangtze_River.gif
People in flooding of the Yangtze17
5. Discuss in regard to specific examples the difference between the manner in which
flooding is addressed in both LEDCs and MEDCs

LEDC
 Little forewarning and flood preparation  many casualties and homes destroyed
 Floods can be beneficial for agriculture by fertilizing crops; this dependence can
be dangerous when the flood bigger than expected (e.g. Ethiopia)18
 In densely populated urban areas, there is often not enough room or capital to
invest in constructing detention reservoirs or extensive infiltration measures to
mitigate the effects of floods19
 Flood response (e.g. 2007 South Asian flood): international organizations and
foreign countries send supplies (especially food, temporary shelters)
 Water-borne diseases are a serious threat from flooding, so international groups
supply medical help and clean water

2006 Floods in Ethiopia20

17
http://www.fao.org/docrep/008/ae929e/ae929e01.jpg
18
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Da-En/Developing-Countries-Issues-in.html
19
http://journals.witpress.com/pages/paperinfo.asp?PaperID=275&jID=17&vn=2&in=2
20
http://www.unsystem.org/SCN/archives/nics10/ethiopia1.jpg
MEDC
 More money spent on flood prevention and drainage basin management
 E.g. the EU-funded Interreg Rhine Meuse Activities (IRMA) program21
o For the countries in the catchment area of the Rhine and Meuse (Belgium,
France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands)
o Restores the natural course of tributaries
o Indirect discharge of rainwater from residential and industrial areas
o Creates retention and overflow areas within the upper catchment area
o Development of models and tools for spatial planning
o Promotes and implements flood monitoring, flood warning and protection
systems / models
 Flood response time is short due to better technology and equipment
 E.g. BC has purchased a $30,000 satellite system22
o It has reduced the time it takes the River Forecast Centre to receive new
data by up to six hours

Catchment area of the Rhine and the Meuse23

21
http://www.riob.org/ag2000/IRMA.htm
22
http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=f6b36b83-90e1-4b47-aae4-
fd5f259b10a6
23
www.riob.org/ag2000/IRMA.gif