Chapter 5 global disasters Introduction to floods

Introduction to floods Flooding is: an overflowing of water onto dry land. it commonly starts from heavy rainfall and the damage mainly depends on flood location. The most dangerous flood is the flash flood which happens quickly with little or no warning. floods can have both positive and negative impacts, the can save people from drought or can be a disaster and be very costly.

Types of floods Natural floods catastrophic floods 1. natural floods: They are the floods that are caused naturally by the overflow of a huge volume of water from rivers, lakes, and oceans, or by heavy rains and downpours, hurricanes..etc,. Ex., when wind hits the ocean, water sometimes overflow and causes coastal floods. Coastal floods can happen because of volcanoes, earthquakes , landslides, or explosions. These waves are called “Tsunamis” (they are waves that can be 50 to 100 feet high, they always flow straight, that’s why they are dangerous

Types of floods catastrophic floods: caused by significant or unexpected events, like dam breakage Example: Shadi Kor Dam breakage in Pakistan that killed more than 1.500 people.

The impacts of floods 1. damage to human lives. 2. damage to property . 3. forcing transport routs to be changed. 4. business damage. high cost of deploying emergency services, environment agencies, and local authority staff.