TO CONTROL FLOODING, WE NEED TO WORK

WITH THE FORCES OF NATURE, INSTEAD OF

SIMPLY TRYING TO ELIMINATE THEM.
FLOOD CONTROL
INTRODUCTION

CARL JOHN GEMARINO

Floods can cause many problems and in serious cases, lives may be taken as
well. This is why it is important to take preventive measures to stop the floods
from happening in the first place.
Flood control is referred to as measures taken to prevent floods from
happening.
 CAUSES OF FLOODS

• Floods are caused by many factors: heavy precipitation, severe winds over
water, unusual high tides, tsunamis, or failure of dams, levels, retention
ponds, or other structures that contained the water.
• Periodic floods occur on many rivers, forming a surrounding region known as
the flood plain.
• To be discussed further by next reporters.
 EFFECTS OF FLOODS

• Flooding has many impacts. It damages property and endangers the lives of
humans and other species. Rapid water runoff causes soil erosion and
concomitant sediment deposition elsewhere (such as further downstream or
down a coast).
• The spawning grounds for fish and other wildlife habitats can become
polluted or completely destroyed.
• Some prolonged high floods can delay traffic in areas which lack elevated
roadways.
 EFFECTS OF FLOODS

• Floods can interfere with drainage and economic use of lands, such as
interfering with farming.
• Structural damage can occur in bridge abutments, bank lines, sewer lines,
and other structures within floodways. Waterway navigation and
hydroelectric power are often impaired.
• Financial losses due to floods are typically millions of dollars each year.
 EFFECTS OF FLOODS

• 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 hydrologically based
renewable sources of energy is higher in flood-prone regions.
 DETECTION

• Flash floods tend to be associated with many types of storms, all capable of
producing excessive rainfall amounts over a particular area, so detection
remains a challenge. Sometimes a flash flood threat is overshadowed by
other severe weather events happening at the same time. The main tools
used to detect heavy rainfall associated with flash floods are satellite,
lightning observing systems, radar, and rain gauges.
 RADAR

• WSR-88D radars graphically display detected precipitation on a map. Radar

can show the location of the intense rainfall cores, and estimate the
duration of rainfall. Radar can also track the evolution of storm systems over
time. Forecasters are able to watch existing storm cells intensify, and see
when new cells begin to develop. Animation of radar provides specific
information on the movement of storm systems and helps in the assessment
of the flash flood threat.
 RAIN GAUGES

• Rain gauges provide the most accurate method of measuring rainfall at a

single geographic point. To have operational value, the rain gauge report
must be available in real time, and automated reporting networks are
increasing. Real-time rain gauge networks are most useful for flash flood
detection when WSR-88D rainfall estimates can be compared with the
actual rain gauge values to determine the accuracy of the radar estimate.
 SATELLITE

• Estimates of rainfall from satellite data are less direct and less accurate
than either gauges or radar, but have the advantage of high resolution and
complete coverage over oceans, mountainous regions, and sparsely
populated areas where other sources of rainfall data are not available. Since
flash flood events often originate with heavy rainfall in sparsely
instrumented areas that goes undetected, satellite-derived rainfall can be a
critical tool for identifying hazards from smaller-scale rainfall and flood
events.
 METHODS OF CONTROL

• In many countries, 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.
• To be discussed further by next reporters.
END