7.

FLOODS

7.1 INTRODUCTION

The term flood is derived from the word flow. A flood is an overflow of water
that causes inundation or submergence of land (which is usually dry) for
several days in continuation. This situation occurs mostly due to an
overflowing river, a dam break, snowmelt, or heavy rainfall and mostly
affect the people living close to rivers or low level coastal areas.

Floods are very severe environmental/ hydro-meteorological hazards and

may be slow onset or rapid onset in its nature. Floods may not all the times
hazardous rather they increase the fertility of the land as they bring rich
fertile alluvial soil each time. Flood disasters are natural and mainly man-
made as human activities like manipulation of water shade, drainage
basin and flood plains, has aggravated the disastrous effects of floods.
About 40 million hect (8%) of land mass is prone to flood in India. Floods
are the regular features in some parts of the country particularly, Andhra
Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, Bihar etc.

7.2 OCCURRENCE AND TYPES OF FLOODS

The basic cause of flood is the heavy rainfall in short duration or the
continuous rain fall for long duration that increases the discharge and
surge in the rivers. The problem becomes much severe when the natural
path of water flow is obstructed by manmade constructions like bridge
piers, floating debris, weirs etc. Every flood is different. They can occur
suddenly and recede quickly, or may take days or even months to build
and then discharge gradually. Generally, the flood of big rivers has slow
developing characteristics in contrast with the flash flood. On the basis of
the characteristic of flood these can be categorized as below:

(i) Flash Flood: Flash floods are the events which occurs in a small
duration between peak discharge and flood. The possible reasons of
flash flood are, accelerated run-off, dam failure, breakup of ice jams.
These are dangerous because of their sudden occurrence and the
speed with which they occur.

(ii) River Floods: River floods generally have the characteristic of slow
buildup. They are usually seasonal in river systems.

(iii) Coastal Floods: These are associated with the tropical cyclones,
tsunami waves, storm surges etc. and are mainly confined to the
coastal regions.

Compiled by:
1 Prof. B.P.Suneja
7.3 REASONS and HAZARDOUS EFFECT OF FLOOD

The severity of flood damage is governed by,

 Depth of water,
 Duration of submergence,
 Velocity of flow,
 Rate of rise of water level,
 Frequency of occurrence,
 Topography/Geology of the area, etc.

Apart from these factors the manmade factors are,

 Weak construction practices/ Non-engineered construction,

 Lack of awareness,
 Deforestation activities,
 Increasing urbanization,
 Faulty agricultural practices,
 Ineffective drainage system of the area,
 Poor readiness of the local bodies to face the flood situation
 Lack of equipment/ machinery available for rescue operations
 Poor warning system

The data of annual discharge of major river shows the annual consistency
of rain fall. In spite of that the damage level due to flood is on increasing
trend. The typical hazardous effects of floods are similar to cyclone and
are as below:

a. Physical Damages:
They destroy houses & buildings; sewer lines may get overflowed or
damaged. Most of the structures are lost/ damaged by washing away
due to flow of water, causing loss of life as well as loss of revenue. Most
of the buildings are damaged due to

 Seepage of water in different components

 Due to unequal-settlement of foundation or floor
 Opening of weak masonry joints
 Bulging of walls

Sometimes it is difficult to get repair the damaged building, it depends

upon the damaged.

Compiled by:
2 Prof. B.P.Suneja
b. Casualties and Public Health:
Casualties are caused by collapse of structure, drowning or by floating
debris, and due to associated landslides. Contamination of water
supplies and even that of ground water and damage of sewer lines may
lead to viral outbreaks or epidemics.

c. Crops and Food Supply:

The flood may ruin the standing crops, agriculture farms, tree
plantation and food stocks. They carry soil away from valuable farming
land.

d. Communication and Transportation:

Loss/ damage of communication systems like communication towers,
telephone lines, satellite disks, antennas is most common during
floods. Transportation system also get disrupted due to damage of
roads, railway lines, and bridges. Loss of communication and
transportation to the affected area may further hamper the rescue
operation severely and is double blow to the survivals.

e. Social Impact:
Like any other disaster the floods also have the severe social impacts
both short term as well as long term on the society. Few of them are
loss of education, health & nutrition problems, loss of employment,
increase of poverty along with some of the psychological problems due
to loss of family members/ relatives, homes and jobs etc.

In time prediction of flood in advance, and taking the mitigating efforts

accordingly may reduce the severity of flood disasters. In case of flood
disasters, post disaster mitigating efforts plays an important role in
reducing the disastrous effects as the flood’s hazardous situation remains
for a longer duration and in the flooded arear water and air transport are
the only means to carry out the rescue operation for the survivals. The
typical post disaster needs in case of flood are,

 Search and rescue of survived people;

 Medical assistance;
 Short supply of food, water and cloths;
 Clearance of obstacles to drain out the water;
 Water purification;
 Epidemiological surveillance;
 Temporary shelters;
 Technical survey/ health monitoring of damaged structures and
rehabilitation strategies etc.
 All necessary efforts to bring the regular activities of the people back
to normal.

Compiled by:
3 Prof. B.P.Suneja