Floods

Floods and Society

by Katy Pearce and Deborah Leib

Floods are among the most frequent and costly natural disasters in terms of human hardship and economic loss. (Floods) Peoples’ lack of education about flooding preparation and the instability of predicting floods has led to a $3.1 billion annual cost for the United States alone (Floods) and more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide in one year. (Confronting Natural Disasters: An International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction) Excluding droughts, almost ninety per cent of damages relating to natural disasters is caused directly or indirectly by floods. Seventy-five per cent of the time that a President of the United States declares an area a disaster, it is due to flooding. Floods and flash floods kill more people in this country than any other natural disaster. The damage and death toll seem to be rising. The biggest killer used to be lightening, but with increased awareness about thunderstorms and their safety rules, people are able to avoid the effects of lightening. However, more and more people are living in flood-prone areas, such as along riverbeds and in floodplains and that makes the chance of flood-related death higher. (Floods) Also the high costs and maintenance of flood protection systems and structures tends to turn communities off from proposing methods for dealing with this potential killer.

Floods pose tremendous danger to people and property. Since 1900, floods have taken more than 10,000 lives in the United States alone. Eighty per cent of flood deaths take place in a vehicle. Just six inches of flood water can knock an adult down. Only two feet of water can float a large sized vehicle. One-third of flooded roads and bridges are so damaged that only fifty per cent of those trying to cross in a vehicle make it to the other side. (Facts About Flooding)

A flood is defined as a high flow of water that comes from a body of water (Basics of Flooding) and overtops the normal confinements and/or covers land that is normally dry. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Floods are the most common and widespread of all natural disasters, besides fire. (Backgrounder: Floods and Flash Floods) They are also the number one related killer. (Project Safeside: Flood and Flash Flood Safety)

There are three major types of floods: river floods, flash floods and coastal floods. River floods are caused by high or overflowing water from a river and typically occur after winter and spring rains and when snow is melting. (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence) This water is directed to a major stream from its drainage basin. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) River floods can also occur when ice or floating debris cause a jam. (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence) The debris flows tend to occur primarily in the summer. Intensive snowmelt in the mountains causes the debris to flow in the spring and rapid thawing glaciers cause the problems that happen during the summer. (Hiadny and Buchtele) Torrential rains also cause river floods from decaying hurricanes (Project Safeside: Flood and Flash Flood Safety) or sustained rainfall from a frontal storm. (Flood Climatology)

Flash floods occur when excessive rainfall sends a river out of its bank in a period of several hours or less (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence), usually during the night. (Prediction and Mitigation of Flash Floods) The usually are the result of cloudbursts or torrential rains. (Confronting Natural Disasters: An International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction) Flash floods can reach heights of twenty feet and higher. (Flash Flood Safety Rules) This type of natural disaster is common mainly in desert and mountainous regions. However, they can still occur and cause damage where streams flow in narrow canyons, where there are steep terrain and high surface run off rates. They also can occur whenever thunderstorms are present. (Confronting Natural Disasters: An International Decade for Natural Hazard Reduction) The two key elements to flash flooding are rainfall intensity and duration. Intensity is the rate of rainfall and duration is how long the rain lasts. Topography, soil conditions and ground cover also play a role. (Flash Floods: NWSFO) Like river floods, flash floods can be caused by a spring thaw (Project Safeside: Flood and Flash Flood Safety) or intense storms, specifically thunderstorms (Flood Climatology) or storms with a large amount of rainfall in a short period of time. (Backgrounder: Floods and Flash Floods) These large amounts of rain pour large amounts of water in to small drainage basins. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Ice jams, overflowing drainage basins and dam breaks also cause flash floods. (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence) Low permeability soils or soils in a highly saturated state, impervious ground surfaces, steep slopes that facilitate rapid flood-wave movement, and possible anchor convections are all conductive to the genesis of flash floods. (Prediction and Mitigation of Flash Floods) Flash floods give little or no warning, which makes the potential danger much greater. (Backgrounder: Floods and Flash Floods) Flash floods can roll boulders, tear out trees, destroy building and bridges, and scour out new channels. (Flash Floods: NWSFO)

The third major type of flood, coastal floods, occurs when strong offshore winds that push water from an ocean on to the land. (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence) Low barometric pressure in storms like hurricanes cause the sea level to rise locally above the coastal lowlands. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Eventually storm surges are produced. (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence) Coastal areas are often barrier islands, swamps and plains with many rivers. The additional rainfall in these areas increases flooding in the surrounding low lying areas. (Flood Climatology) The overflowing seawater then rushes in to the mouths of river channels and covers the area with water. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Escape routes can be cut off and blocked by high water. (Flooding Takes Many Forms: NWSFO)

Volcanoes surprisingly also cause floods. They are produced by the melting of ice and snow during ice-clad volcanic eruptions and by heavy rains that may associate with eruptions. This is a type of flood that can be large and occur suddenly. If the rivers are already high due to snowmelt or rainfall, the floods can be greater than normal. (Miller) Smaller historical meltwater floods caused by volcanic heating have occurred in Iceland and Ecuador. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Floods that are eruption-caused can be more damaging than others can because they contain a large amount of sediment. (Miller) During the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in 1980, flash floods and mudflows occurred. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser)

Urban floods are when land is converted from fields or woodlands to roads and parking lots; it loses it ability to absorb rainfall. Urbanization increases runoff two to six times over what would occur in natural terrain. During urban flooding, streets can become swift moving rivers, while basements can become deadly as they fill with water. (Flooding Takes Many Forms: NWSFO) (Flood and Flash Flood Occurrence)

Arroyos/Washes are a water-carved gully or normally dry creek bed. Arroyos can fill with fast-moving water very quickly. (Flooding Takes Many Forms: NWSFO)

Ice jams usually occur in cold arctic-like regions. These occur when ice breaks up in to cakes and sheets. The flow of the river, augmented by the run off from snow melt released by the warm weather, becomes obstructed and is dammed up by the ice. The water accumulates and the river rises. A return to cold weather may arrest the snowmelt run off and the jam holds until the next thaw. The dam grows until the force of the backwater can break the jam. The rapid release of the impounded water and ice can result in a flood downstream. (Hoyt and Langbein)

Floods have accompanied mankind throughout time. Damage and deaths have occurred. The environment and economy have played a large part in the impact of flooding. Increased density of population in areas prone to floods, urbanization, and "people’s marked changed way of life in respect to nature and natural resources" are some of the causes of flooding. (Hiadny and Buchtele)

What exactly happens to the environment to create a flood? Floods occur in five stages, called the run off cycle. Stage one is a fair weather rainless period. Low rivers with dry rills and slow seepage from ground water are present. The fair weather has depleted land water drainage from ground water in to stream; this lowers the water table. The water table drops below the channel stream and gradually dries up. The lowering of the water table restores the underground storage capacity of the soil. Stage two has uniform and light rain. A small amount of rain falls directly in to the stream and becomes an increasment of water and stream flow. Some rain goes to vegetation, some rain wets the ground and is caught by small depressions and puddles. There is no overflow. In stage three the rainfall increases. The vegetation is thoroughly wetted and the surface depressions and puddles begin to overflow. The additional rain becomes runoff or infiltrates the soil. The dry soil absorbs the water freely, and the sodden soil absorbs it slowly. Rainfall exceeds the infiltration rates and active surface runoff now exists. This runoff may or may not reach the stream channels depending on the infiltration capacity of the ground.

Obviously, soil moisture increases and begins to reach capacity. The runoff not absorbed flows to the stream. With the percolation to the ground water, the water table rises and base flow in to the stream increases. Runnels, creeks and brooks rise rapidly because of this. The surface flow and subsurface stormflow run off from the land that come in surges results in the rise and fall of the water levels. In the fourth stage the storm has ended. The stream is at its peak. The channel storage will soon drain as the flood passes downstream. Evaporation and transpiration dry wet vegetation and surface pools and soil moisture. Infiltration from the pools to the soil is still active and the excess water in the soil is percolating to the water table. The shallow seeps are drying up, but the deeper seeps are at their peak. The water table continues to rise, but the crest will probably not be reached until the stream has dropped back to bank-full stage. The cycle then returns to the first stage to start the restoration of the storage capacity of the land, nature’s flood control. Yet, the process continues. As the stream descends and is joined by tributaries it collects drainage from an increasing catchment area. The catchment area determines the volume of flow carried by different rivers. The flood moves from the headwaters to the lower stream. The rivers begin to deepen and overflow their banks due to the increased demands upon their capacity. The water in all of the tributaries also increases. Eventually the water reaches a drainage basin. Water goes in to storage in the valley bottom to check the increase in water discharge. (Hoyt and Langbein)

To minimize the damage caused by floods, people can utilize protection through the control of water. Several methods have been used trough time to ward off floods and enable man to use floodplains. Dikes and levees hold the water off the land and confine it within the usual main channels of flow. Dikes are the most popular method of flood protection in the world. First built in the upper areas of the floodplain, dikes were later built higher and closer to the rivers, increasing costs and the difficulty of maintenance. Dikes, levees and flood walls provide the most direct means of flood protection. However, extensive levee systems block off the flood channel, decreasing the channel conveyance and tend to raise flood stages. Also, their construction tends to destroy much natural storage that originally was available on the flood plain, and tends to increase the concentration of runoff and to raise the flood peaks downstream. Although these are major disadvantages, the major advantage of these structures in alluvial rivers. The construction of levees tends to increase the velocity of flow through the confined channels, therefore increasing the scour and minimizing the deposition of bed load and suspended matter. (Hoyt and Langbein)

Dams, or barriers built to control the flow of water, were not built until about two hundred years ago in Europe and about eighty-five years ago in the United States. After 1927, nearly all of the major rivers in the United States had dams and locks. Today the U.S. has more than 50,000 dams. Although dams are a good weapon in the fight against floods, they do not necessarily prevent them from occurring. Poor construction and aging can eventually lead to costly replacement and repairs. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser)

Another method of flood protection is through channel improvements. The enlargement of the discharge capacity of natural channels by means of "straightening", making "cutoffs", cleaning vegetation, widening and deepening, and thereby decreasing flood stages, may be efficacious, but it is limited in value. Once the altering meets its limit, the beneficial flood protection ends. (Hoyt and Langbein) This procedure makes it impossible for the body of water to maintain aquatic life. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Yet another method is diversion of floodwaters, an old method that is still used to some extent today. By digging ditches, the water will be diverted in to a channel. However, this technique depends largely on the natural topography. (Hoyt and Langbein)

Reservoirs store water in valleys and have been in existence for a very long time. They provide protection by storing floodwater in basins formed by dams or dikes so that it is prevented from contributing to the flood in the river system downstream. Instead of spreading naturally over wide channel or valley bottoms that are of considerable economic use, the water is effectively stored to great depths in artificially constructed reservoirs, located upstream in areas generally of low economic value. Reservoirs are designed primarily to decapitate the peak. (Hoyt and Langbein)

Floods are somewhat unpredictable, but there are factors that can point to the likelihood of a flood occurring. Locations such as low lying areas, being near water, being downstream from a dam (Backgrounder: Floods and Flash Floods) or living in a floodplain (Basics of Flooding) are typical flood areas. Floodplains are low land that is beside a river that is subject to flooding. It is built of alluvium, of sediments carried, deposited and reworked by the river. Population density in floodplains is twice that of another area. Therefore, the damage that occurs can be much greater. (Hoyt and Langbein) Since floods develop in a short period of time and can take a rapid course. The river systems are so diverse, causing the predictability to be different from individual basins. There is a greater predictability of rainfall floods than that of rainstorms. The predictability of flash floods depends primarily on the data available on the casual rainfall. Floods that are caused by ice melting and snow rely more on a "higher degree" of predicting rather than precipitation. (Hiadny and Buchtele) Technological advances in flood predicting are being made everyday. Presently, weather surveillance radar is being used nationwide, improving our monitoring capabilities of intense rainfall in space over "endangered" areas. This new technology accompanied with satellite and other innovations should provide advances in the detection of floods. (Prediction and Mitigation of Flash Floods) Geologists reconstruct a history of past floodings of areas to deduce the possibility of a future flood in that area. They also examine the sediments of the stream valley and look for signs of erosion and scour to reveal immense past floods. They also keep records of floods through tree rings and other natural sources to reveal tree damage. (Nuhfer, Proctor, and Moser) Warning and forecast systems, as well as protective facilities also help protect the public from the effects of floods. (Hiadny and Buchtele) The meteorologist must determine the possibly of a flash flood producing rains reaching his area of responsibility. If there is a slight possibility of a flood, a flash flood watch is issued to the public. This means keep informed and be ready for action if a warning is issued. When the threat of a flash flood is likely a flash flood warning is issued. The warning requires prompt reaction if one is in an area subject to flooding. (Floods and Flash Floods)

River flood forecasts are prepared by the National Weather Service river-forecast centers and sent out to the NWS offices to be distributed to the public. During periods of flooding, the NWS river-forecast centers issue forecasts for the height of the flood crests, the date and time the river is expected to overflow its banks, and the date and time when the flow in the river is expected to recede to within its banks. To develop flood forecasts, the NWS develops and calibrates complex mathematical models of how the nation’s rivers and streams respond to rainfall and snowmelt. The models are developed for preselected forecast points, which are usually located along major rivers or on small streams near urban areas that are prone to flooding. In every case, records of river discharge must be available so the NWS can develop a river model. An important hydraulic input to the models is the USGS stage/discharge rating. The resulting model is rarely exact, but it provides estimates of river response to rainfall. Thereafter, when heavy rainfall is forecasted for the river basin, these amounts are entered in to the model, and the model estimates the river stage and discharge that will result. As new river and rainfall data are collected during a storm, the new data are entered in to the computer, and new river forecasts are produced. (Floods)

By publishing emergency information, ensuring that land use and management and building codes are flood-conscientious, preparing local emergency people (Backgrounder: Floods and Flash Floods) and moving structures to higher grounds, (Basics of Flooding) a community can prepare for a flood and minimize damage. Physically building dams, levees and channels can help citizens protect themselves from flood damage; however because of costs and failures, these structures often fail. (Basics of Flooding) For the person, a few steps can be taken before a flood to help them if one occurs. By knowing the flood potential risk levels in your area and having evacuation routes set up, keeping your car fueled, storing extra drinking water, keeping canned foods on hand, having an adequate first-aid kit, keeping a portable radio in your home and by checking valves in building sewer traps to prevent water from entering the home; one can feel significantly prepared for an emergency. (Action to Take Before the Flood) A family should have a plan in case of a flood emergency. By posting emergency telephone numbers, installing safety features in your home, such as fire alarms and fire extinguishers, and by learning CPR and first aid. (Family Disaster Plan) An extra step is purchasing flood insurance and flood-proofing one’s home. (Floods- Before, During and After)

During the flood listen to radio and television for local information, be aware of any water system with potential flooding, prepare to evacuate, secure your home, turn off utilities, will the car with fuel, sterilize and fill bathtub with water, allow flood waters to flow freely in to the basement, so to avoid structural damage, and do not drive. (Floods- Before, During and After) Do not walk through flood waters. Keep pets and children away from storm drains, sewers and floodwaters. (During a Flood) The simplest plan is to go to higher ground and leave the flooding area. (Action Taken During the Flood)

After the flood stay away from flood waters, be aware of places where floods have receded and caused weakened roads, listen to the radio or television for more information, wash hands frequently if one is to come in to contact with flood waters, throw away food that came in to contact with flood waters, take photos of your home and belongings, and take an inventory check. (Floods- Before, During and After)

The information regarding flood damage is unbelievable. With these statistics it is shocking that more people are not prepared for this natural disaster. With the death tolls rising and more people moving to flood-prone areas, the chance of loss of life, property damage and the decline of local environmental resources is much greater than ever before. Because of this the public needs to become more aware and educated about floods and how floods can affect society. While technology has produced greater methods of prediction and protection, people are still become causalities of floods. The only way that we can prevent more losses is through education.

Glossary

Alluvium: of or pertaining to an unconsolidated, stratified deposit laid down by running water. Occasionally applied only to fine sediments (e.g. silt and clay), but more generally referring to coarser sediments such as sand and gravel as well, sediments deposited by erosional processes, usually by streams

Anchor Convection: it functions because heated fluids, due to their lower density, rise and cooled fluids fall. A heated fluid will rise to the top of a column, radiate heat away and then fall to be re-heated, rise and so on. Gasses, like our atmosphere, are fluids, too. A packet of fluid can become trapped in this cycle. When it does, it becomes part of a convection cell

Arroyos/Washes: water-carved gully or dry creek bed

Backwater: An unnaturally high stage in stream caused by obstruction or confinement of flow, as by a dam, a bridge, or a levee. Its measure is the excess of unnatural over natural stage, not the difference in stage upstream and downstream from its cause

Bank-Full Stage:

Barometric Pressure: atmospheric pressure

Base Flow: a base flow is similar to a natural flow; however, base flow is calculated by adding back only key diversions to the recorded stream gages. In other words, base flows are not truly natural flows in that "minor" diversions are left in the gage Catchment Area:

Channels:

Cloudbursts: sudden, heavy rain

Coastal Flood: flood when strong, offshore winds push water from an ocean to the land

Dams: barriers that control water flow

Dikes: an embankment made to prevent flooding

Drainage (river) basin: hollow container that holds water, the area drained by a river and its tributaries

Evaporation: removing moisture and becoming a vapor Evaporation is the physical process by which a liquid is transformed to the gaseous state, which in irrigation usually is restricted to the change of water from liquid to gas Flash Flood: floods with excessive rainfall

Flood: a high flow of water that comes from a body of water and overtops the normal confinements and/or covers land that is normally dry

Floodplain: an area adjacent to a stream or other water course which is subject to flooding land next to a river that becomes covered by water when the river overflows its banks

Flood-wave:

Frontal Storm: a boundary or transition zone between two air masses of different density, and thus (usually) of different temperature. A moving front is named according to the advancing air mass, e.g., cold front if colder air is advancing

Ground Cover:

Ground Water: the supply of fresh water found beneath the surface of the Earth (usually in aquifers) that often supplies wells and springs, water within the earth that supplies wells and springs; water in the zone of saturation where all openings in rocks and soil are filled, the upper surface of which forms the water table
Ice Jam: ice dams up a river, the pressure of the water breaks the dam, causing a rapid surge of water

Impervious: incapable of being penetrated

Infiltration: to filter or pass gradually through or into, Water moving into the ground from a surface supply such as precipitation or irrigation. Infiltration rates are reckoned on the basis that the water is entire water

Levee: an embankment to prevent a river from flooding bordering land

Peak: the highest flow expected to be encountered under any operational conditions, including periods of high rainfall and prolonged periods of wet weather

Permeability: able to go through

Rainfall Duration: how long the rain lasts

Rainfall Intensity: rate of rainfall

Reservoir: store water in basins to prevent the water from joining a flood, A pond, lake, or basin, either natural or artificial, used for the storage, regulation, and control of water

Respiration: the process by which chemical energy of organic molecules is released. Involves the consumption of oxygen and the liberation of carbon dioxide and water
Rills: small streams

River Channels: the bed or deeper part of a river

River Flood: a flood caused by high or overflowing water from a river

Runoff: That part of precipitation, snowmelt, or irrigation water that flows from the land to streams or other surface waters, precipitation that flows to and in surface streams; renewable water
Runnels: small streams

Saturated: soaked, a condition of the atmosphere in which a certain volume of air holds the maximum water vapor it can hold at a specific temperature

Sediment: matter that settles to the bottom of a liquid

Seepage: to leak through small openings, the slow movement of water through small cracks, pores, interstices of a material into or out of a body of surface or subsurface water, the loss of water by infiltration into the soil from a canal, reservoir, or other body of water, or from a field, seepage is generally expressed as flow volume per unit time. During the process of priming, the loss is called absorption loss

Soil Conditions:

Spring Thaw:

Storage Capacity: the ratio of water which the soil, after being saturated, will yield by gravity to the total volume of the soil
Surface Water: water that flows in streams and rivers and in natural lakes, in wetlands, and in reservoirs constructed by humans

Surges: large waves of water A phenomena wherein sea level rises above the normal tide level when hurricanes or tropical storms move from the ocean along or across a coastal region. This sea level rise can consists of three components, the first of which results from low barometric pressure, i.e. the so-called inverse barometer effect, where lower atmospheric pressure on the surface of the water allows it to rise. The second component is wind set-up where the winds drag surface water to the shore where it piles up. The third component of the rise is due to coupled long waves where the peak of the wave coincides with the shoreline

Topography: the science of representing surface features of a region on maps

Torrential Rains: a swift, violent rain

Tributary: point where water flows into a large body

Water Table: level below the earth's surface at which the ground becomes saturatedwith water, the surface of an unconfined aquifer which fluctuates due to seasonal precipitation
Sources:

Webster’s New World Dictionary and Thesaurus

Glossary: Carbon Dioxide and Climate, 1990, Available: http://cdiac.esd.ornl.gov/cdiac/glossary.html

Glossary of CRDSS Terms, Available: http://198.233.42.33/glossary.html

Glossary of Oceanography and the Related Geosciences with References, Available: http://www-ocean.tamu.edu/~baum/paleo/paleogloss/paleogloss.html

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Flood Figures