3.

Flood Protection Methods

 Flood is a temporary inundation of land as a result of surface water
(stagnant or flowing) escaping from their normal confines or as a
result of heavy precipitation.
 Why Flood Protection
 Internationally flood poses one of the most widely distributed natural risks to
life.(natural hazards: earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, tsunamis, floods,
drought etc)
 Between 1973-1997 an average of 66 million people a year suffered flood
damage.
 This makes flooding the most damaging of all natural disasters.
 The average annual number of flood victims jumped from 19 million to 131
million during the periods 1993-1997.
 The 2006 flood in Ethiopia mainly in omo river, Dire Dawa caused death toll
705

 In economic terms also, floods are responsible for approximately a third of

all the losses due to natural hazards.

 Flood disaster and frequency of flood is increasing every year.

 Possible reasons for increasing flood losses are:

 Increasing population & pressure on floodplains

 Increasing value of property in flood prone areas

 Increasing vulnerability (age) of structures

 Changes in environmental conditions

 Changing climate
 Death toll Event Location Date

2,500,000–3,700,000 1931 China floods China 1931

500,000–700,000 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1938

Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina.

231,000 Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and China 1975
another 145,000 died from subsequent disease.

145,000 1935 Yangtze river flood China 1935

100,000 Hanoi and Red River Delta flood North Vietnam 1971

40,000 1949 Eastern Guatemala flood Guatemala 1949

30,000 1954 Yangtze river flood China 1954

28,700 1974 Bangladesh monsoon rain Bangladesh 1974

20,006 1999 Vargas mudslide Venezuela 1999

20,000 1939 Tianjin flood China 1939

 Types of floods
 In general distinction can be made of five different types of floods:

 River flood – inundation of adjacent land, overtopping its banks (heavy precip.)

 Flash flood – due to very high local precip., flooding in limited area

 Stagnant and urban flood - Extreme local rainfall combined with impeded or block
drainage may cause inundation

 Coastal flood – due to tsunami, hurricane, high tides, etc

 Lake flood - rise in the water level due to precip. and inundation of shore area
 Causes of Floods
 The causes of the different types of floods are numerous.
 Generally, nearly some 50% of the causes of floods are related to human
interference
 C auses of F lood N atural M an m ade
1 Heavy rain and precipitation X
2 Deep snow cover X
3 Saturated soil X
4 Permafrost X
5 Rising groundwater X X
6 Backwater in storm-water drainage system X X
7 Landslide X X
8 Dike and levees breach X
9 Dam operation and dam break X
10 Flood defence structure X
11 River regulation X
12 Sealing ground surface (Asphalt/concrete) X
13 Change in vegetation / deforestation X
14 Settlement and industrialization in flood prone areas X
 Benefits of and damages due to floods
o Benefits of floods
 Flood plain soils consist of rich deposits of sediments suitable for agricultural
cultivation and wild plant species.
 When the floodwaters retreat, the original soil is more fertile, because of the organic
matter and minerals in this material.

 Floods provide much of the critical habitat for many biotas such as fish, wildlife
and the water fowl.
 Spring pools that remain after flooding support insects and small animals which, in turn,
feed larger creatures.

 Floods carry food to ocean estuaries, which are breeding grounds for marine life,
 Percolating floodwater in floodplains is important for recharging groundwater
resources
o Damages due to floods
 Damage to infrastructure (roads, airports etc)
 Damage to property
 Damage to economy and livelihoods (commercial and industrial establishment,
farming lands etc)
 Damage and loss of human life
 Loss of services due to damage to infrastructure, property
 The damage can be classified in terms of
 form as direct and indirect, and
 measurement as tangible and intangible.
 Direct damages are those damages that are attributed directly to physical
contact with flood water.
 Example of direct damages include damage to infrastructure and
property, the loss of life etc
 Indirect damages are results of property of services which are not directly
damaged by floods but are harmed by interruption of services due to direct
damages to infrastructure.

 Example of indirect damages include traffic interruption due to damage to

roads and bridges

 Tangible damages are those damages on which a monetary value can be

attached.

 Example: damage to infrastructure and property

 Intangible damages are those on which it is difficult to attach a monetary

value

 Example: loss of life

3.2 Design Discharge
 Flood protection works are designed to reduce the frequency and expected
inundation damages,
 The first question to be addressed is the design flood discharge and, hence,
the design flood water level to be used for the design of the protection
works,
 Determination of design flood discharge for flood protection works is based
on the same basic consideration as that of many other hydraulic projects,
i.e., risk analysis.
 Economic benefits from a proposed protection project over the expected
useful life span of the works or the risks averted should be equal to or
greater than the compound cost of the project.
 The benefits are of two kinds:

 Those arising from prevention of flood damage, and

 Those resulting from more intensive use of protected land

 The benefit from prevention of flood damage is the difference in expected

damage throughout the life of the project with and without flood controls and
these benefits include

 Cost of replacement or repairing of damaged properties

 Cost of evacuation, relief rehabilitation of victims and emergency flood

protection measure

 Losses due to disruption of business and losses due to crops or cost of

replanting crops.
 Land protected from floods may be utilized for more productive purposes when
not subjected to flood hazards.
 The benefit is assessed by estimating the difference in net revenue from the property with
and without flood control.

 In evaluation of the economic benefits, it is generally an accepted practice that

only tangible and direct benefits should be drawn into consideration,

 Tangible benefits are those benefits for which monetary value can be attached

 Direct benefits are those benefits accrued due to the project

o reduction of physical damage to properties is a tangible direct benefit

o reduction of loss of life is an intangible direct benefit
o reduction of traffic disruption due to flood damage to roads and bridges is a
tangible but indirect benefit
 Overall cost of the proposed project should include all expenditures required
for its completion, operation and maintenance, interest and depreciation.
 A complicating factor with many flood-protection projects is the possibility
of loss of human life, an occurrence which obviously eludes evaluation in
terms of material cost.
 A simple optimization procedure for a flood control project is schematically
shown below.

1 is the project cost

2 is the flood damage
(remaining)
 Return periods of 10,000 yrs and more are known to have been chosen in
many cases of important population centers and industrial parks.

Recommended
Flood plain characteristics flood return
period (yrs)
1. Extensive agriculture 6-7
2. Intensive agriculture 15-20
3. Thinly or medium populated living areas 100-200
4. Densely populated living areas and 200-1000
industrial centers

5. Important urban centers >1000

3.3 Flood Protection / Control Methods
1. Flood control by structural measures
 Stream training and regulation

 Flood reduction by levees and dikes

 Reduction of flood peak by routing through reservoirs

2. Flood abatement
 Reduction of the flood volume

3. Behavioural measures
 Flood control by structural measures
o Stream training and regulation

 These are methods that reduce flood hazard by increasing the carrying
capacity of a stream and, thus, lowering its water stages.

 Several methods exist. They can be used individually or in combination.

 Improvement of cross section,

 Channel rectification,

 Reduction of river bed slopes in upper reaches,

 River bank protection

 Artificial channel linings,

 Improving channel cross-section
o Once the design flood discharge is determined, the existing channel of an
alluvial stream should be improved or a new artificial channel designed in
order to safely convey the flood wave.

o Cross-section of the channel is usually computed assuming uniform flow at

flood design discharge and adding adequate free board.

o Flood wave propagation is essentially an unsteady gradually varied problem.

 It is important therefore to note that in many instances the uniform flow

assumption underestimate the actual depth of flow especially at the upper
reaches where there is little wave attenuation.
 Channel rectification or short-cut of bends (or artificial cut-off)
o When a river contains sharp bends, bend cutting may be required for several reasons.
 to improve flood discharge capacity – It may also be used to direct the river from the
curved flow which may be endangering valuable land and property
 to improve the situation for navigation – e.g. reduce the length
 to stop severe bank erosion
o If most of the sharp bends of a natural stream
are short-cut, it is estimated that the mean
flow velocity may be increased by as much as
about 40%, and thus its capacity
o Bend cutting is executed by dredging a new channel along a much shorter but stable
alignment.
 To get a stable channel, a gentle bend should be made.
 Morphological consequences of short-cutting are:
 Energy gradient of the stream along the cut-off channel and upstream of it is
increased; hence also its sediment transport capacity, STC

Erosion and deposition at

cutoff

If the elevations at points A and B remain unaltered, the longitudinal slope
between the two points along the cut-off is considerably increased. As a
result, there are two transitions
From the mild slope upstream of A to the steeper slope of the cut-off;
From the steeper slope of the cut-off to the mild slope downstream of B.
 Erosion starts first not far from point A and deposition will take place in the
vicinity of point B.
 With time, the erosion moves upstream from point A (back erosion), and
sedimentation advances downstream from point B.
 The back erosion and progressing deposition are carried on until eventually
a new longitudinal slope is established, more or less similar to the original
slope.
 Because of reduced stream storage, peak discharge downstream of the cut-
off is likely to be higher than before.
 The streambed upstream of point A is lowered with time, while downstream
from point B it will be raised above the original streambed before the
construction of the cut-off.
  This reduction in channel capacity in the downstream part may cause
flooding at higher discharges, since the water can no longer be contained
within the stream channel.

 Therefore, in most cases, meander short-cutting alone is not sufficient to

prevent the stream from overflowing its banks during the flood protection
design discharge;

 Hence additional means are necessary, such as channel improvement or dykes.

 Reduction of bed slopes
 The erosion-deposition cycle may be improved by reducing the slope of the
streams by structural measure including
 Drop structures,
 Check dams, and
 Bottom sills
 River bank protection
 River bank protection works improve stream channel capacity by curtailing
continuous longitudinal and lateral movement of the river planform.
 Artificial channel linings
 Concrete lined channels create smoother wetted perimeter and so increase
velocity
 Thus water levels drop and flood risk is reduced
 Expensive, and high maintenance
 Debris dams:
 To trap sediment in upper catchments to prevent downstream bed
aggradation/deposition
 Maintains higher bankfull capacities downstream
 Periodic need for emptying, but can be used for construction materials
 Especially important in semi-arid, mountainous catchments
o Flood reduction by Levees and dikes / Marginal Embankments
 A levee or dyke is a structure mainly for flood protection by controlling the
river and not by training it.

 The alignment should follow the normal pattern of meandering of the river.

 They are constructed of earth materials and may be provided at one or both
sides of the river.
 The design of dykes or levees is just like embankment dams.
 They are likely to fail due to overtopping, piping, seepage, etc.
 They are designed to hold water up to the maximum anticipated flood level
without the possibility of overtopping and withstanding all external
pressures.
o Therefore, the necessary conditions are met by providing sufficient
freeboard, bed width, top width and stone protection on slopes.

 As the height increases it

becomes necessary to
provide key trenches,
zoned sections, etc.
to make the embankment stable.

 Freeboard may be between 0.3 m and 1.5 m above maximum flood level.
 Location of Levees and Dikes
o It is obvious that the same discharge could be carried between higher dykes
built close to the stream bank, and low dykes built away from the stream.

oWith the exception of cases in which the distance of the dykes from the
stream is limited by circumstances that fall mainly in the legal province (such
as property right, expropriation restrains, etc), the distance, and hence, also
their height is based on consideration of:
Economics
Safety
 Economics: concerning cost of dykes – low dykes are cheaper to build, not
only because of minor volume of earthwork but due to other construction
considerations – e.g. protection against piping; clearing foundation area
from vegetation, roots, boulders, or organic matter; compaction in layers;
etc.

 Dykes are usually built along extended stretches of the stream; hence
cost of dyking scheme is sensitive to additional height.

 Safety: Failure with low dykes will result in only minor damages, while with
high dykes, both the material damage and human suffering are likely to be
more severe.
o Flood protection by means of reservoirs
 Dams are constructed across a stream to form a reservoir that provides a
temporary storage of flood water during peak flows, and to release the
stored volume to the downstream channel at a regulated rate during the
flood wave and after its subsidence.

o Single purpose dams

 Storage dams: surcharge storage available for flood routing

 Flood detention dams: whole active storage available for flood
detention

o Multipurpose dams

 portion of active storage is available for flood detention

 The simplest form of a flood protection reservoir is a detention basin using
flood detention dams.

 In such types of dams, the dam is equipped with a generally uncontrolled

bottom outlet conduit and a spillway.

 If economically justified, the best solution for such a basin is to set the
elevation of the spillway crest so as to ensure sufficient storage capacity for
the maximum design flood, without the need for overflowing the crest and
causing spillway discharge.

 The figure shows the attenuation of the flood peak by detention dam.

 Note also that due to a reduction in the peak, the water level in the
downstream channel is also reduced.
 Spreading grounds (Ponds)
 Diverting flood water to low impact flood plain zones, for storage
 Reduces downstream peak flows
 Low impact zones can be recreational land use
 Flood water will evaporate or eventually infiltrate, replenishing groundwater
supplies
 e.g. Nile River at Sudan
Flood Abatement
 Tackles problem at source by reducing surface run-off.
 This can be achieved by:
 Afforestation or reforestation of upper catchment slopes
 Comprehensive protection of vegetation
 Terracing of farmland
 Contour ploughing
 Flood Behavioural responses
 Accepting the loss – fatalism often the only option in some countries like
Haiti or Bangladesh
 Public relief funds – emergency response to hazard event requires funding,
materials, technical support, rebuilding. Sources vary from UN agencies to
governments and NGO’s.
 Flood insurance – a standard response in flood prone communities, e,g,. in
the Netherlands
 Monitoring and Prediction –
 data on rainfall and stream discharge can be used to produce accurate
predictions of the timing of flood surges
 Can be used for communities to prepare for actual flood event or for
authorities to organise evacuations
 Not always possible – flash floods have too short a lag time , lack of
technical equipment / personnel, or communication systems,
 Floodplain zoning

 Planning authorities can prohibit certain land-uses in the more flood prone
floodplain zones

 Flood proofing

 Individuals bear responsibility for reducing likely flood damage to property

 Techniques: water-proof garden walls, windows and doors; sandbags;

buildings on stilts; removal of damageable goods to higher levels. e.g.
houses in Fogera flood plain, Lake Tana Area, Ethiopia.