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== Headline text ==
{{Expand|article|date=May 2008}}
{{Expand|article|date=May 2008}}


[[Image:Povoden 2002 hlasna treban.jpg|thumb|250px|[[2002 European floods|2002 flood]] in [[Czech Republic]]]]
[[Image:Povoden 2002 hlasna treban.jpg|thumb|250px|[[2002 European floods|2002 flood]] in [[Czech Repub
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Revision as of 21:32, 4 December 2008

Headline text

2002 flood in [[Czech Repub

I LIKE COOKIES

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For other uses, see Flood (disambiguation).

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land, a deluge.[1] In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, exceeding the total capacity of its bounds, with the result that some of the water flows or sits outside of the normal perimeter of the body. It can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows out of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders.

The word comes from the Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages (compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float).

The term "The Flood," capitalized, usually refers to the great Universal Deluge described in the Bible, in Genesis, and is treated at Deluge.

Look up flood in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Principal types of flood

Riverine floods

Flooding of a creek due to heavy monsoonal rain and high tide in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia
  • Slow kinds: Runoff from sustained rainfall or rapid snow melt exceeding the capacity of a river's channel. Causes include heavy rains from monsoons, hurricanes and tropical depressions, foreign winds and warm rain affecting snow pack.
  • Fast kinds: flash flood as a result of e.g. an intense thunderstorm.

Estuarine floods

  • Commonly caused by a combination of sea tidal surges caused by storm-force winds.

Coastal floods

  • Caused by severe sea storms, or as a result of another hazard (e.g. tsunami or hurricane).

Catastrophic floods

  • Caused by a significant and unexpected event e.g. dam breakage, or as a result of another hazard (e.g. earthquake or volcanic eruption).

Muddy floods

Other

  • Floods can occur if water accumulates across an impermeable surface (e.g. from rainfall) and cannot rapidly dissipate (i.e. gentle orientation or low evaporation).
  • A series of storms moving over the same area.
  • Dam-building beavers can flood low-lying urban and rural areas, often causing significant damage.

Typical effects

Primary effects

  • Physical damage- Can range anywhere from bridges, cars, buildings, sewer systems, roadways, canals and any other type of structure.
  • Casualties- People and livestock die due to drowning. It can also lead to epidemics and diseases.

Secondary effects

  • Water supplies- Contamination of water. Clean drinking water becomes scarce.
  • Diseases- Unhygienic conditions. Spread of water-borne diseases
  • Crops and food supplies- Shortage of food crops can be caused due to loss of entire harvest.[2]
  • Trees - Non-tolerant species can die from suffocation[3]

Tertiary/long-term effects

  • Economic- Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding costs, food shortage leading to price increase etc.

Flood defences, planning, and management

Autumn Mediterranean flooding in Alicante (Spain), 1997.

In western countries, rivers prone to floods are often carefully managed. Defences such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. Coastal flooding has been addressed in Europe with coastal defences, such as sea walls and beach nourishment.

London is protected from flooding by a huge mechanical barrier across the River Thames, which is raised when the water level reaches a certain point (see Thames Barrier).

Venice has a similar arrangement, although it is already unable to cope with very high tides. The defenses of both London and Venice will be rendered inadequate if sea levels continue to rise.

The largest and most elaborate flood defenses can be found in the Netherlands, where they are referred to as Delta Works with the Oosterschelde dam as its crowning achievement. These works were built in response to the North Sea flood of 1953 of the southwestern part of the Netherlands. The Dutch had already built one of the world's largest dams in the north of the country: the Afsluitdijk (closing occurred in 1932).

Flood blocking the road in Jerusalem

Currently the Saint Petersburg Flood Prevention Facility Complex is to be finished by 2008, in Russia, to protect Saint Petersburg from storm surges. It also has a main traffic function, as it completes a ring road around Saint Petersburg. Eleven dams extend for 25.4 kilometres and stand eight metres above water level.

The New Orleans Metropolitan Area, 35% of which sits below sea level, is protected by hundreds of miles of levees and flood gates. This system failed catastrophically during Hurricane Katrina in the City Proper and in eastern sections of the Metro Area, resulting in the inundation of approximately 50% of the Metropolitan area, ranging from a few inches to twenty feet in coastal communities.

In an act of successful flood prevention, the Federal Government of the United States offered to buy out flood-prone properties in the United States in order to prevent repeated disasters after the 1993 flood across the Midwest. Several communities accepted and the government, in partnership with the state, bought 25,000 properties which they converted into wetlands. These wetlands act as a sponge in storms and in 1995, when the floods returned, the government didn't have to expend resources in those areas.[4]

In China, flood diversion areas are rural areas that are deliberately flooded in emergencies in order to protect cities [1].

(See Crossing the Lines)

Many have proposed that loss of vegetation (deforestation) will lead to a risk increase. With natural forest cover the flood duration should decrease. Reducing the rate of deforestation should improve the incidents and severity of floods.[5]

Flood clean-up safety

Clean-up activities following floods often pose hazards to workers and volunteers involved in the effort. Potential dangers include electrical hazards, carbon monoxide exposure, musculoskeletal hazards, heat or cold stress, motor vehicle-related dangers, fire, drowning, and exposure to hazardous materials.[6] Because flooded disaster sites are unstable, clean-up workers might encounter sharp jagged debris, biological hazards in the flood water, exposed electrical lines, blood or other body fluids, and animal and human remains. In planning for and reacting to flood disasters, managers provide workers with hard hats, goggles, heavy work gloves, life jackets, and watertight boots with steel toes and insoles.[7]

Benefits of flooding

There are many disruptive effects of flooding on human settlements and economic activities. However, flooding can bring benefits, such as making soil more fertile and providing nutrients in which it is deficient. Periodic flooding was essential to the well-being of ancient communities along the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers, the Nile River, the Indus River, the Ganges and the Yellow River, among others. The viability for hydrological based renewable sources of energy is higher in flood prone regions.

Flood modelling

While flood modelling is a fairly recent practice, attempts to understand and manage the mechanisms at work in floodplains have been made for at least six millennia.[8] The recent development in computational flood modelling has enabled engineers to step away from the tried and tested "hold or break" approach and its tendency to promote overly engineered structures. Various computational flood models have been developed in recent years either 1D models (flood levels measured in the channel) and 2D models (flood depth measured for the extent of the floodplain). HEC-RAS[9], the Hydraulic Engineering Centre model, is currently among the most popular if only because it is available for free. Other models such as TUFLOW[10] and Flowroute[11], combine 1D and 2D components to derive flood depth in the floodplain. So far the focus has been on mapping tidal and fluvial flood events but the 2007 flood events in the UK have shifted the emphasis onto the impact of surface water flooding.[12]

Deadliest floods

Death Toll Event Location Date
2,500,000–3,700,000[13] 1931 China floods China 1931
900,000–2,000,000 1887 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1887
500,000–700,000 1938 Yellow River (Huang He) flood China 1938
231,000 Banqiao Dam failure, result of Typhoon Nina. Approximately 86,000 people died from flooding and another 145,000 died during subsequent disease. China 1975
145,000 1935 Yangtze river flood China 1935
more than 100,000 St. Felix's Flood, storm surge Netherlands 1530
100,000 Hanoi and Red River Delta flood North Vietnam 1971
100,000 1911 Yangtze river flood China 1911
50,000–80,000 St. Lucia's flood, storm surge Netherlands 1287
60,000 North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 1212
40,000 1949 Eastern Guatemala flood Guatemala 1949
36,000 St. Marcellus flood, storm surge Netherlands 1219
30,000 1954 Yangtze river flood China 1954
28,700 1974 Bangladesh monsoon rain Bangladesh 1974
25,000–40,000 St. Marcellus flood / Grote Mandrenke, storm tide Netherlands, Germany, Denmark 1362
20,006 1999 Vargas mudslide Venezuela 1999
20,000 All Saints' Flood, storm surge Netherlands 1570
20,000 1939 Tianjin flood China 1939
14,000 Christmas flood, storm surge Netherlands, Germany, Denmark 1717
10,000–100,000 St. Elisabeth flood, storm surge Netherlands, Belgium 1421
8,000–15,000 Burchardi flood Germany, Denmark 1634
10,000 Great Iran Flood Iran 1954
10,000 1824 St. Petersburg flood Russia 1824
several thousands St. Juliana flood, storm surge Netherlands 1164
several thousands St. Agatha flood, storm surge Netherlands 1288
several thousands St. Clemens flood, storm surge Netherlands 1334
several thousands All Saints flood, storm surge Netherlands 1532
several thousands North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 1703
6,200 Sichuan, Hubei, Anhui flood China 1980
5,000 Cojup valley, Cordillera Blanca mountain range, landslide by massive avalanche Peru 1941
4,892 1968 Rajasthan, Gujarat monsoon rain India 1968
4,800 1951 Manchuria flood China 1951
3,838 1998 Eastern India, Bangladesh monsoon rain India, Bangladesh 1998
3,814 1989 Sichuan flood China 1989
3,800 1978 Northern India monsoon rain India 1978
3,656 1998 Yangtze river flood China 1998
3,500 1948 Fuzhou flood China 1948
3,084 1993 South Asian monsoon rain Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan 1993
3,076 2004 Eastern India, Bangladesh monsoon rain India, Bangladesh 2004
3,000 1992 Afghanistan flood, mainly, Gulbahar, Kalotak, Shutul, Parwan, flash flood, mudslide Afghanistan 1992
2,910 1950 Pakistan flood Pakistan 1950
2,775 1996 China flood, torrential floods, mud-rock flows China 1996
2,566 1953 Japan flood, mainly Kitakyushu, Kumamoto, Wakayama, Kizugawa, massive rain, flood, mudslide Japan 1953
2,400 North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 838
2,379 1988 Bangladesh monsoon rain Bangladesh 1988
2,200 Johnstown Flood United States (Pennsylvania) 1889
2,142 North Sea flood of 1953 storm surge Netherlands, United Kingdom 1953
2,075 1981 Sichuan, Shanxi Flood China 1981
2,055 1987 Bangladesh monsoon rain Bangladesh 1987
2,000–5,000 some reports list as many as 12,000 dead Morvi dam burst India (Morvi, Gujarat) 1979
2,000–4,000 Huascaran, Ranrahirca landslide by massive avalanche Peru 1962
1,909 Vajont Dam landslide and flood Italy 1963
1,834 1992 Pakistan, Northern India monsoon rain Pakistan, India 1992
1,723 1991 China flood, mainly, Sichuan, Guizhou, Hubei, torrential floods, mud-rock flows China 1991
1,624 Fujian, Anhui, Zhejiang flood China 2005
1,605–3,363 spring flooding Haiti, Dominican Republic 2004
1,558 St. Martin flood, storm surge Netherlands 1686
1,532 2002 China flood, torrential floods, mud-rock flows China 2002
1,503 Mumbai and the surrounding state Maharashtra, Kamataka, monsson rain India 2005
1,437 1995 China flood, mainly, Hunan, Jiangxi, Liaoning, Sichuan, Fujian, torrential rain, devastating floods, mud-rock flows China 1995
1,348 2007 China flood, mountain torrents, mud-rock flows China 2007
1,144 2006 Southern Leyte mudslide Philippines 2006
1,029 2004 China flood, mountain torrents, mud-rock flows, landslide China 2004
1,000–1,500 Santa Catarina, [2]Tubarão], torrential heavy rain Brazil 1974
992 Isahaya, massive rain and mudslide Japan 1957
941 Inuyama Iruka pond failure Japan 1868
933 1938 Massive rain of Japan, mainly Tokyo, Kobe, massive rain and landslide Japan 1938
915 Barcelona, flash flood Spain 1962
848 1977 Karachi flood Pakistan 1977
844 2006 North Korea flooding North Korea 2006
827 Algiers, Bab El Oued, devastating flood, mudslide Algeria 2001
800 North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 1825
800 2000 Mozambique flood Mozambique 2000
785 1967 Brazil flood, mainly Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, flood and landslide Brazil 1967
705 2006 Ethiopia flood, mainly Omo River Delta, Dire Dawa, Tena, Gode, flash flood, heavyrain Ethiopia 2006
702 1999 Vietnam flood, mainly occurred at Thua Thien Hue Vietnam 1999
672 1972 Seoul, Kyonggi flood South Korea 1972
653 1972 Luzon flood Philippines 1972
640 1987 Villatina landslide disaster Colombia 1987
610 2007 North Korea flooding North Korea 2007
540 1969 Tunisia flooding Tunisia 1969
532 Cuzco, Huallaga, torrential rain, flooding, landslide Peru 1982
517 1967 Massive rain of Japan, mainly, Kobe, Kure, Agano River, massive rain and landslide Japan 1967
506 KwaZulu-Natal South Africa 1987
500 Malawi, flash flood and landslide Malawi 1991
500 Gauldal, landslide Norway 1345
464 Lisbon flash flood Portugal 1967
445 Western Japan, massive rain and landslide Japan 1972
429 2002 Nepal flood, mainly occurred at Makwanpur, monssnal rain, flood, landslide Nepal 2002
425 1999 Mexico flood, mainly occurred at Tabasco, Puebla, Chiapas, flood and mudslide Mexico 1999
421 Malpasset Dam failure France 1959
420 St. Aarons Flood Amsterdam 1420
408 1969 South Korea flood, mainly, Gyeongsangbukdo, Gyeongsangnamdo, Gangwon, torrential rain, landslide South Korea 1969
407 1993 Iran flood, mainly occurred at Isfahan, Bandar Abass, flash flood and landslide Iran 1993
405 1998 South Korea flood, heavy massive rain, landslide South Korea 1998
400 1955 Lebanon Tripoli flood Lebanon 1955
400 St. Francis Dam failure United States (California) 1928
386 Thailand, Malaysia, mainly, Nakhon, Songkhla, Kelantan, torrential rain Thailand, Malaysia, 1988
385 Ohio River flood of 1937 United States (Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois) 1937
373 1966 Rio de Janeiro flood, flood and landslide Brazil 1966
364 Piura, Tumbes, torrential rain, flooding, landslide Peru 1983
>360 Great Dayton Flood United States 1913
353 2007 African Nations flood mainly Sudan, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, and many African country 2007
347 1996 Yemen flood Yemen 1996
345 1987 South Korea flood, mainly, Chungchongnamdo, Chollanamdo, Kangwon, torrential rain, landslide South Korea 1987
342 2006 East African Flood Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia 2006
315 North Sea flood of 1962 storm tide Germany 1962
313 2003 Sumatra flood, mainly Jambi, Batanghari, Tondano, torrential rain, flash flood, landslide Indonesia 2003
300 Quebrada Blanca canyon, landslide Colombia 1974
300 Pampayacta avalanche Peru 1963
299 Nagasaki, massive rain and landslide Japan 1982
290 Rio de Janeiro and Fluminense flood Brazil 1988
272 1973 Granada, Almeria, Murcia flood Spain 1973
270 Great Sheffield flood dam disaster United Kingdom 1864
268 Val di Stava dam disaster Italy 1985
261 Gormec, avalanche Turkey 1992
259 1966 Maian flood Jordan 1966
255 1998 Tajikistan flood Tajikistan 1998
250 Josefina dam failure Ecuador 1993
238 Rapid City, South Dakota flood United States 1972
230 Marrakesh flash flood Morocco 1995
200–600 Chungar landslide, flood, avalanche Peru 1971
200 Pamir Mountain area, mud and rock slides, torrential rain Tajikistan 1992
190 Huigra, landslide Ecuador 1931
165 2004 Brazil flood, mainly Sao Paulo, Pemambuco, torrential rain, mudslide Brazil 2004
159 Sarno flood and landslide Italy 1998
154 KwaZulu-Natal South Africa 1995
144 Aberfan disaster United Kingdom (Wales) 1966
135 Ozengeli, avalanche Turkey 1993
128 Izumo, massive rain and mudslide Japan 1964
120 1991 Antofagasta Flood, mud swept Chile 1991
119 2007 Central and East Java torrential monsson rain, landslide, flood Indonesia 2007
117 Masuda, massive rain and landslide Japan 1983
116 Verdal, landslide Norway 1893
114 Seoul, Inchon, heavy rain South Korea 1990
110 northern Caucasas, northern Okrug, heavy rain, landslide Russia 2002
104 1981 Laingsburg flood South Africa 1981
98 Flood of the millennium Poland, Czech Republic 1997
94 Mameyes Disaster Puerto Rico (Ponce) 1985
over 90 Columbus, Ohio flood on March 25, 1913 United States 1913
81 Holmfirth Flood—Bilberry Reservoir dam failure United Kingdom 1852
80 Johnstown Flood—Failure of Laurel Run Dam and flash flooding United States 1977
78 Austin Dam failure United States 1911
73 Kagoshima, mudslide and debris flow Japan 1993
72 Gudbrandsdalen flood and landslides Norway 1789
70 2005 levee failures in Greater New Orleans United States 2005
70 Frank Slide, Alberta Canada 1903
47 McDonald Dam failure United states 1900
37 Yuba City, California Christmas Eve flood, levee failure United States 1955
19 North Sea flood, storm surge Netherlands 1916
19 1997 Threadbo landslide Australia 1997
16 Brisbane flood Australia 1974
11 2007 United Kingdom floods United Kingdom 2007

See also

Dozens of villages were inundated when rain pushed the rivers of northwestern Bangladesh over their banks in early October 2005. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top image of the flooded Ghaghat and Atrai Rivers on October 12, 2005. The deep blue of the rivers is spread across the countryside in the flood image.

References

  1. ^ MSN Encarta Dictionary. Flood. Retrieved on 2006-12-28.
  2. ^ Southasianfloods.org
  3. ^ http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/n_resource/flood/cover.htm
  4. ^ Floods, Tornadoes, Hurricanes, Wildfires, Earthquakes... Why We Don't Prepare. Amanda Ripley. Time. August 28, 2006.
  5. ^ Bradshaw CJ, Sodhi NS, Peh SH, Brook BW. (2007). Global evidence that deforestation amplifies flood risk and severity in the developing world. Global Change Biology, 13: 2379-2395.
  6. ^ National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Storm and Flood Cleanup. Accessed 09/23/2008.
  7. ^ The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. NIOSH Publication No. 94-123: NIOSH Warns of Hazards of Flood Cleanup Work.
  8. ^ Dyhouse, G. et al. Flood modelling Using HEC-RAS (First Edition), Haestad Press, Waterbury (USA), 2003.
  9. ^ Hydrologic Engineering Center Home Page
  10. ^ Tuflow
  11. ^ Flowroute
  12. ^ Pitt Review: Lessons learned from the 2007 floods. June 2008.
  13. ^ Worst Natural Disasters In History

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Flood.
Wikinews has related news:

Further reading

  • O'Connor, Jim E. and John E. Costa. (2004). The World's Largest Floods, Past and Present: Their Causes and Magnitudes [Circular 1254]. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey.
  • Thompson, M.T. (1964). Historical Floods in New England [Geological Survey Water-Supply Paper 1779-M]. Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office.
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