Floods & Droughts

FLOODS & DROUGHTS
Submitted to: - Vijaya.L.Gorthi
Subject: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
By,
Sheshasri,
RBS/PGPM/SPR09/005,
4th sem
FLOODS:-
The word "flood" comes from the Old English flod, a word common to Germanic
languages (compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow,
float; also compare with Latin fluctus, flumen).
A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods

directive defines a flood as a temporary covering by water of land not normally covered
by water. 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, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water
escapes its usual boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary
with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless
such escapes of water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other
inhabited area.
Floods can also occur in rivers, when flow exceeds the capacity of the river channel,
particularly at bends or meanders. Floods often cause damage to homes and businesses if
they are placed in natural flood plains of rivers. While flood damage can be virtually
eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of
mind, people have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the
gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue
to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is evidence that the perceived value of living
near the water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.
Principal types and causes
Riverine:-
 Slow kinds: Runoff from sustained rainfall or rapid snow melts 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.
Unexpected drainage obstructions such as landslides, ice, or debris can cause slow
flooding upstream of the obstruction.
 Fast kinds: include flash floods resulting from convective precipitation
(intense thunderstorms) or sudden release from an upstream impoundment created
behind a dam, landslide, or glacier.
Flash Floods:-
 Estuarine:-
Commonly caused by a combination of sea tidal surges caused by storm-
force winds. A storm surge, from either a tropical cyclone or an extra tropical
cyclone, falls within this category.
 Coastal:-
Caused by severe sea storms, or as a result of another hazard
(e.g. tsunami or hurricane). A storm surge, from either a tropical cyclone or
an extra tropical, falls within this category.
 Catastrophic:-
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:-
 A muddy flood is generated by run off on crop land.
 A muddy flood is produced by an accumulation of runoff generated on
cropland. Sediments are then detached by runoff and carried as suspended
matter or bed load. Muddy runoff is more likely detected when it reaches
inhabited areas.
 Muddy floods are therefore a hill slope process, and confusion with
mudflows produced by mass movements should be avoided.
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.
Effects
Primary effects
 Physical damage - Can damage any type of structure, including bridges, cars,
buildings, sewer systems, roadways, and canals.
 Casualties - People and livestock die due to drowning. It can also lead to
epidemics and waterborne 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.[4] However, lowlands near rivers depend upon river silt deposited by
floods in order to add nutrients to the local soil.
 Trees - Non-tolerant species can die from suffocation.[5]
Tertiary/long-term effects
 Economic - Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding

costs, food shortage leading to price increase, etc.
Control
In many countries across the world, rivers prone to floods are often carefully
managed. Defenses such as levees, bunds, reservoirs, and weirs are used to prevent
rivers from bursting their banks. When these defenses fail, emergency measures
such as sandbags or portable inflatable tubes are used. Coastal flooding has been
addressed in Europe and the Americas with coastal defenses, such as sea
walls, beach nourishment, and barrier islands.
DROUGHT:-
A drought (or drouth [archaic]) is an extended period of months or years when a

region notes a deficiency in its water supply. Generally, this occurs when a region
receives consistently below average precipitation. It can have a substantial impact on the
ecosystem and agriculture of the affected region. Although droughts can persist for
several years, even a short, intense drought can cause significant damage and harm the
local economy.
This global phenomenon has a widespread impact on agriculture. The United

Nations estimates that an area of fertile soil the size of Ukraine is lost every year because
of drought, deforestation, and climate instability. Lengthy periods of drought have long
been a key trigger for mass migration and played a key role in a number of ongoing
migrations and other humanitarian crises in the Horn of Africa and the Sahel.
Types of drought
As a drought persists, the conditions surrounding it gradually worsen and its impact on
the local population gradually increases. People tend to define droughts in three main
ways:
1. Meteorological drought is brought about when there is a prolonged period with

less than average precipitation. Meteorological drought usually precedes the other
kinds of drought.
2. Agricultural droughts are droughts that affect crop production or the ecology of
the range. This condition can also arise independently from any change in
precipitation levels when soil conditions and erosion triggered by poorly planned
agricultural endeavors cause a shortfall in water available to the crops. However,
in a traditional drought, it is caused by an extended period of below average
precipitation.
3. Hydrological drought is brought about when the water reserves available in
sources such as aquifers, lakes and reservoirs fall below the statistical average.
Hydrological drought tends to show up more slowly because it involves stored
water that is used but not replenished. Like an agricultural drought, this can be
triggered by more than just a loss of rainfall. For instance, Kazakhstan was
recently awarded a large amount of money by the World Bank to restore water
that had been diverted to other nations from the Aral Sea
under Soviet rule. Similar circumstances also place their largest lake, Balkhash,
at risk of completely drying out.
Mitigation strategies
 Cloud seeding - an artificial technique to induce rainfall.

 Desalination of sea water for irrigation or consumption.
 Drought monitoring - Continuous observation of rainfall levels and comparisons
with current usage levels can help prevent man-made drought. For instance, analysis
of water usage in Yemen has revealed that their water table (underground water level)
is put at grave risk by over-use to fertilize their Khat crop. Careful monitoring of
moisture levels can also help predict increased risk for wildfires, using such metrics
as the Keetch-Byram Drought Index or Palmer Drought Index.
 Land use - Carefully planned crop rotation can help to minimize erosion and
allow farmers to plant less water-dependent crops in drier years.
 Rainwater harvesting - Collection and storage of rainwater from roofs or other
suitable catchments.
 Recycled water - Former wastewater (sewage) that has been treated and purified
for reuse.
 Transvasement - Building canals or redirecting rivers as massive attempts
at irrigation in drought-prone areas.
 Outdoor water-use restriction - Regulating the use of sprinklers, hoses or buckets
on outdoor plants, filling pools, and other water-intensive home maintenance tasks.

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FLOODS & DROUGHTS

Submitted to: - Vijaya.L.Gorthi

Subject: ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT

A flood is an overflow of an expanse of water that submerges land. The EU Floods

 Economic - Economic hardship, due to: temporary decline in tourism, rebuilding

A drought (or drouth [archaic]) is an extended period of months or years when a

This global phenomenon has a widespread impact on agriculture. The United

1. Meteorological drought is brought about when there is a prolonged period with

 Cloud seeding - an artificial technique to induce rainfall.

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