Well come

Hydraulic and WR Engineering Department

Flood and Drought Management
(HWRE-5203)

March 2022
 Chapter one
Overview of hydro-climatic hazards

Hazard is a
dangerous phenomenon
substance
human activity or condition
that may cause the
loss of life
 injury or other health impacts
property damage
loss of livelihoods and services
social and economic disruption, or environmental damage.
 Hazard
Hazards can be divided in to two parts.
Natural hazard-which are caused because of natural
phenomena
Includes hazards with meteorological
hazards with geological origin.

Meteorological Hazards: Floods and drought….etc.

Geological Hazards: Tsunamis, Volcanoes, Earthquakes
 Hazard

Man made hazard-which are due to human negligence.

These are hazard originating from technological or
industrial conditions,
Including accidents
dangerous procedures
infrastructure failures and include explosions,
leakage of toxic waste, pollution, dam failure, wars
or civil strife etc.
 Flood Hazard
Definition
Flood is any high stream flow which overtops the
natural or artificial banks of a stream.
Flood is a body of water that inundates land that is
infrequently submerged and in doing so cause damage or
loss of life.
Flooding is a natural and a recurring event for a river
or stream.
Characteristics
Potential damaging natural phenomena
Occurring with a certain probability
Within a specific period of time
In a certain area.
An areal image of flood affected area Cedar Rapids, Iowa,
USA June 13,2008 6
Floods , Pakistan, August, 2010 7
Flood Southern Nations ,Ethiopia,2006 8
Flooding in Afar , Overflow of Logia River, Ethiopia,2010 9
 Types of flood Hazards

Floods can be described according

 Speed
Geography
Cause of flooding
 Types of flood Hazards

According to their duration

1.Slow-Onset Floods:
usually last for a relatively longer period
it may last for one or more weeks, or even months.
As this kind of flood last for a long period:
it can lead to lose of stock
damage to agricultural products
roads and rail links.
 Types of flood Hazards

2.Rapid- Onset Floods:

last for a relatively shorter period
they usually last for one or two days only.
Although this kind of flood lasts for a shorter period:
it can cause more damages and pose a greater risk to life
and property as people usually have less time to take
preventive action during rapid-onset.
 Types of flood Hazards
3.Flash Floods
The National Weather Service defines a flash flood
as
“A rapid and extreme flow of high water into a
normally dry area, or a rapid rise in a stream or
creek above a predetermined flood level, beginning
within six hours of the causative event (e.g., intense
rainfall, dam failure, ice jam)”.
 Flash Floods

Flash floods characterized by

 a rapid rise in water,
high velocities, and
large amounts of debris
Major factors in flash flooding
intensity and duration of rainfall and
the steepness of watershed and
stream gradients.
flash floods – Highway Washout
 Social, economic and Environmental
impacts
• Extreme floods have serious social and economic
impacts.
The most important consequence of floods:
 the loss of life and property.
 Structures like houses, bridges; roads etc. get
damaged by the gushing(flow in a rapid & plentiful
stream) water
 landslides triggered on account of water getting
saturated
 boats and fishing nets get damaged.
 Social, economic and
Environmental impacts
• There is huge loss to life and livestock caused
by drowning.
• Lack of proper drinking water facilities,
contamination of water, (ground water, piped
water supply) leads to outbreak of epidemics,
diarrhea, viral infection, malaria and many
other infectious diseases
 Social, economic and
Environmental impacts
• Flooding also leads to a large area of
agricultural land getting inundated as a result
there is a huge crop loss. This results in
shortage of food, and animal fodder.
• Floods may also affect the soil characteristics.
The land may be rendered infertile due to
erosion of top layer or may turn saline if sea
water floods the area.
 Benefits and costs of early warning and
preparedness
• World bank(2010) on natural hazards and unnatural
hazard identify three specific spending items
desirable for disaster prevention; early warning
system, critical infrastructure and environmental
buffers.
• Critical infrastructure reduces loss of life and
property during and after a disaster. such as bridge
and roads, school located above flood waters,
hospitals that are earthquake resistant.
 Early warning system
• Environmental buffers offers protection from
hazards with in physical limitation such as
dense vegetation for flood and erosion control
or coral reefs.

• Early warning system-provide information

about possible future natural hazards which
may threaten injury or loss of life and damage
to property.
 Early warning system
• Early warning system give people time to flee from
a flash flood and other hazards and provide
information on the occurrence of public health
hazard and enables a faster response to problems of
food and water insecurity.
• Appropriate investment in all three areas, early
warnings, critical infrastructure and environmental
buffers is likely the best approach. b/c together they
can greatly reduce loss of life and livelihoods.
 Early warning system
To be effective , the four elements of the
warning system must co-exist:
•Risk knowledge
•Monitoring and warning service
•Dissemination and
•Communication and response capability.
If any of these elemental is missing or poorly
developed, the over all system will fail.
 Six factors that determine the
gross benefits of EWS
1.Frequency – is the natural hazard common or rare?
2. Severity – what is the magnitude of the risk to life
or the damage to property that the hazard could
cause?
3. Lead-time – Lead-time between a warning and the
actual occurrence of a disaster essentially determines
the range of responses that one could take. more lead-
time generally means that there is a wider range of
possible responses to a disaster warning.
 Cont’d..
4. Accuracy – is the warning correct?
5.Response Costs – what are the costs of possible
responses to the warning?
(6) Loss Reduction: how much are the expected costs
of the disaster reduced, given the likely public
response to the warning?
(7) Early Warning System Cost
Obviously, if this cost is low relative to the gross benefits of
the warning system, the net benefits of the system will be
 Cont’d..
• To fully appreciate the coast benefit of early
warning system, we must consider the overall
operational coast of the system, the social and
economic losses due to false alarms and the
social and economic savings due to timely
action. These data are needed to properly asses
when and where early warning system should
be established.
 Disaster preparedness
Involves forecasting and taking precautionary
measures prior to an imminent threat when advance
warnings are possible.
Preparedness planning improves the response to the
effects of a disaster by organizing the delivery of
timely and effective rescue, relief and assistance.
Disaster preparedness minimizes the adverse effects
of a hazard through effective precautionary actions,
rehabilitation and recovery to ensure the timely,
appropriate and effective organization and delivery
of relief and assistance following a disaster.
 CHAPTER-TWO

Origin and, nature of hydro-climatic

hazards
Flood can be caused by number of process, but
the dominant cause is excess rainfall.
Floods result from meteorological and hydrological
extremes.
 Causes of flood hazard

The meteorological factors

(a) rainfall;
(b) widespread storms/cyclonic storms causing
flooding on a regional scale;
(c) conditions leading to snowmelt/snow fall/ and
(d) temperature.
 Causes of flood hazard
Hydrological factors
 soil moisture levels prior to the storm;
 Level of shallow groundwater prior to the storm.
 surface infiltration rate
 the presence of impervious cover
Channel cross-sectional shape and roughness
Presence or absence of over bank flow, channel network
Synchronization of run-off from various parts of
watershed
 Causes of flood hazard
Human factor
•Land use changes
•Occupation of flood plain obstructing flow
•In efficiency of non maintenance of
infrastructure
•Too efficient drainage of upstream areas
•Climate change effects magnitude and
frequency
 Causes of flood hazard

Physical Characteristics of floods

Important characteristics in terms of the physical
hazard posed by a particular flood:
 The depth of water and its spatial variability
 The areal extent of inundation
 The water velocity and its spatial variability
 Duration of flooding
 suddenness of onset of flooding;
 capacity for erosion and sedimentation
 END OF LECTURE ONE

I THANKS
YOU!!!
• PDSI = palmer drought severity index
• SPI = standardized precipitation index
• RAI = rainfall anomaly index