Flood Disaster Management
Prepared by: Kushagra Keshav (12)
Class: IX B
Acknowledgement
Sources :
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Index
1) Introduction to disaster management
2) Causes of the Floods
3) Effects of the Floods
4) Steps to manage the Floods
5) Conclusion
Introduction to disaster management--Flood
A change to proactive management of natural disasters such as flood requires an identification of
the risk, the development of strategies to reduce that risk, and the creation of policies and
programmes to put these strategies into effect.
Disaster management is a fundamental activity geared to the evaluation of schemes for reducing but
not necessarily eliminating the overall risk , as in may cases risk cannot be entirely eliminated.
For flooding events, there is a need to calculate the probability or likelihood that an extreme event
will occur and to establish and estimate the social, economic and environmental implications should
the event occur under existing conditions.
Maps of the flood-prone areas should be prepared and detailed impacts outlined. A participatory
process should be invoked, leading to the development of an acceptable level of risk. Measures can
be evaluated and implemented to meet this level.
This overall process assists the community in better understanding the various actions that can
increase or decrease risk exposure, and can lead to greater community participation in the
developed solutions to the flooding problem.
There may be a necessity to define several zones within the flood-prone area, dependent on the
velocity of the river and other physical factors. As an example, the flood-prone area may be broken
down into floodway and flood plain components.
Causes of the Flood
There is growing concern about the impact of changing concentrations of greenhouse gases on our
current climate system and the ramifications these changes might have on water availability. It is
believed that further alterations of atmospheric chemistry could lead to increased abnormalities in
climatic parameters such as temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration and might well lead
to more dramatic impacts on streamflow patterns and extreme conditions.
Coastal communities must also deal with the implications of sea level rise, tsunamis, and ocean
storm surge in preparing for flooding events.
Sea level rise due to climate change will result in decreased river slopes in reaches above where the
river enters the ocean, thereby reducing the capacity of the channel to pass flood flows. This
increases the elevation of floods in coastal cities. While the rate of sealevel rise is slow, most
protective works or flood plain delineation exercises are sufficiently long term in scope to warrant
consideration of the predicted rise.
Effects of the Flood
Flooding can have a negative effect on wildlife, causing drowning, disease proliferation, and habitat
destruction. In 2012, hundreds of animals, including many vulnerable one-horned rhinos, were
killed in floods that swamped Kaziranga National Park in the Indian state of Assam. Unpredictable
floods can be harmful even to aquatic life. For example, fish can be displaced and their nests
destroyed.
Floodwater can also alter the landscape, for instance, by eroding riverbanks and causing them to
collapse. As floodwater carries material from the eroded banks, it suspends sediment in the water,
which can degrade water quality and lead to harmful blooms of algae. Suspended sediment
eventually settles out of the water in a process called sedimentation, which can clog riverbeds and
streams and smother aquatic organisms.
Floods are the leading cause of weather-related infectious disease outbreaks. Flooding events
increase the chance of spreading waterborne diseases, such as hepatitis A and cholera. Receding
floodwater can create stagnant pools of water, which provide the perfect breeding ground for
mosquitoes, which can transmit malaria and other diseases.
While floods bring hazards, they also bring nutrients and essential components for life. Seasonal
floods can renew ecosystems, providing life-giving waters. Floods transport vital nutrients, such as
nitrogen, phosphorus, and organic material, to the surrounding land. When the water recedes, it
leaves sediment and nutrients behind on the [Link] can replenish underground water
sources. Floodwater gets absorbed into the ground then percolates through layers of soil and rock,
eventually reaching underground aquifers. These aquifers supply clean freshwater to springs, wells,
lakes, and rivers.
Steps to manage the Flood
Assessing the potential for a hazard to occur and a vulnerability analysis to provide an
understanding of the consequences should an event of a certain magnitude and frequency occur.
Based on this initial work, various mitigation measures can be evaluated to assess their ability for
reducing risk exposure. Based on a thorough risk assessment, disaster management plans and
specific mitigation measures can be identified. Efforts would then be undertaken to implement the
selected mitigation measures.
Policies and programmes to keep future flood damages from rising are based on the delineation and
mapping of flood-prone areas. Generally the resulting programmes will mean some form of control
over new development in the flood-prone area combined with measures to reduce damages to
existing development. Such programmes are needed to curb the rising social and economic losses
that results from floods.
Alternate use of flood-prone land should be considered where possible. It is better to have the land
zoned and used for purposes such as parks, nature areas or ecological reserves than to try and ensure
that future development is flood proofed. Zoning and flood proofing measures can be used to
control development and reduce future flood damages, but the effectiveness of such measures is
highly reliant on enforcement and maintenance. Maps become the common element in terms of
identification of flood-prone areas, identifying the risk to individuals and lending institutions,
preparation of emergency response plans, and design of flood protection and flood proofing.
Construction of protective works such as flood storage reservoirs, diversion of water to side channel
storage or other watersheds, construction of storm channels to carry water around the area to be
protected, and levees along the floodway provide tools to reduce flood damages. Such works can be
constructed to various levels of protection, usually based on:
1) minimum standards for flood protection
2) the optimum level of costs and benefits based on an economic analysis
3) to meet established levels of acceptable risk
Conclusion
It is hardly surprising that rivers have been an important part of human history: They provide food,
freshwater, and fertile land for growing [Link] civilizations first arose along the deltas of
seasonally flooded rivers, such as the Nile in Egypt, because they provided fertile soil for farmland.
While water is essential to life, it can be a destructive force too. When rivers flood, the effects can
be catastrophic.
Floods are a force of nature, and their consequences, both positive and negative, are strongly felt by
affected ecosystems. Floods can be destructive to humans and the natural environment so protective
measures must be taken against them , but they also help to drive biodiversity and are essential to
the functioning of many ecosystems.