6.

4
Flooding
Flooding
 Flooding is the abnormal rise of water level in rivers, coastal areas, plains, and
in highly urbanized centers which may be a result of natural phenomena,
human activities, or both.
 During floods, land which is usually dry becomes submerged.
 Floods, at the very least, can cause inconvenience, for instance, to travelers. In
extreme cases, flooding can cause damage property and can result to loss of
lives.
 Flooding duration can be as short as a few minutes but can take as long as
several days or even weeks to subside.
 Moreover, the amount of area affected by flooding may vary significantly: an
overflowing minor stream will most likely inundate only its levees, while a major
river system could cause flooding to a large portion of valley.
 Flooding can be a natural process and can be the result if man’s inadvertence.
 Some areas, due to their location, land configuration, and climactic setting, are
naturally susceptible to flooding
Primary Flood Types
and Causes
Riverine
 when the level of water flowing through rivers increases and goes beyond the
average water level, or worse, further encroaches levees, the type of flooding is
riverine.
 The rate of increase water level is dependent on the river type and source of
additional water input.
 Water levels usually rise slowly in larger rivers with large catchment areas and
rise more rapidly in smaller rivers which have smaller catchment areas.
Extreme and sustained rainfall
 Is one cause of riverine flooding.
 Large amount of precipitation can cause flooding, simply because
the volumeof water input can sometimes be too much for the
capacity of rivers to drain the water and for the ground to absorb
the water.
Estuarine and Coastal
 Estuarine and coastal flooding occur when seawater encroaches low-lying land
that is usally still above sea level. Flooding in these areas can be a result of
storm surges.
 A Storm surge is a localized unusual increase of sea water level beyond the
predicted astronomical tide level primarily due to intense winds and lowered
atmospheric pressure during the passage of an intense tropical cyclone from
the sea to the land.
 Flooding can also be cause by unusually high tides. Astronomical high tide is a
short-term sea level rise caused by the gravitational pull of the moon and the
sun Earth’s waters.
Types of tides
Spring tides
 Happen when the sun, the earth, and the moon are aligned during new moon
and full moon and cause water to bulge in the direction of the alignment.
Neap tides
 Which occur during quarter moons, do not cause extreme tides because the
gravitational pull of the moon and the sun are perpendicular to each other and
cancel each other out.
Urban flooding
 Urban flooding usually occurs in highly populated, developed areas set on
relatively low lying areas like valleys and plains.
 Urban flooding is largely a result of:
 Saturation of the ground due too much rainfall and
 The presence of large areas of impermeable surfaces like concrete pavements
and rooftops
Proper Drainage system is one which :
– Has a wide coverage
– Has sufficient capacity to accommodate volumes of water based on predicted
worst case flooding event scenario
– Is not prone to blockage.
Catastrophic flooding
– Catastrophic flooding may result from failure and/or major infrastructure
failure.
– Ground failure is the weakening of the rock or soil such as subsidence,
liquefaction, and occurrence of landslides that may be triggered by
earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, intense rainfall, and other natural disasters.
– Subsidence and liquefaction in coastal areas can cause water to encroach areas
originally well above sea level, while landslides can result in natural damming of
rivers and local rise in water level in the river banks.
Flash floods
– Is a rapid, short lived and violent arrival of a large volume of water
which can be caused by intense localized rainfall on land that is
saturated or unable to absorb water.
– May also occur due to the collapse of infrastructure such as dams.
– The most deadly because most of the time they happen without
warning.
Destructive Effects of Flooding
Primary Effects
– Are those which result from direct interaction of humans and their property
with flood waters.
– Include loss of lives and damage to amenities and loss of access to basic
necessities.
– These may include damage to infrastructure such as houses, commercial
buildings, bridges, roads, transportation facilities, drainage and sewerage
disposal systems, power generation and/or transmission facilities, water supply
and treatment facilities and farm land.
Secondary Effects
– Are the short term, immediate but indirect consequence of flooding.
– These nay include power loss, domestic and potable water loss or shortage, risk
of acquiring waterborne diseases, usually due to mixing of human sewage with
flood waters, difficulty of mobilization due ti damage to transportation facilities
and food shortage.
Tertiary Effect
– are the long term indirect consequences of flooding.
– Economic hardships at the local and national levels and unemployment may
result from destruction of production and services based businesses, decline in
tourism in the affected areas, and additional government xpnditures on
rehabilitation of public infrastructure.
Mitigation of Flood Hazards

Methods that can be employed in the mitigation of hazards. These are categorized
as:
 Flood hazard assessment and mapping
 Flood prediction
 Flood forecasting and warning
 Flood control engineering measures
Flood forecasting using modeling
software
 Real time or forecasted data on precipitation and stream flow, degree of ground
saturation, amount of permeable soil and amount of vegetation can be input in
hydrological modeling software to maker short term prediction of flow rates
and water levels several hours to days in advance.
 State of art flood modeling software also considers the presence of flood plains,
man-made flood defenses and the effects of astronomical tides and storm urges
in coming up with a forecast model.
Hydrographs
 Graphs of channel discharge versus time in different places- are the outcome of
flood forecasting.
 These can be used to decide whether releasing a warning is warranted or not or
to decide if previously released warnings should be withdrawn.
Flood Control
 Hard engineering measures can be implemented in order to prevent flooding in
certain places.
The following are structures that are being utilized to control water and to prevent
water from reaching destructive levels/volumes and extents.
Dams – is a barrier that holds back water and can regulate water flow rates.
Diversion canals- are artificial waterways utilized to reroute the excessive storm
water to an area with lower risk or impact to flooding such as the open sea or in a
reservoir intended for floodwater containment.
River and coastal defences- the most common among flood control structures
which are used to prevent water from escaping river banks are artificial levees.
Levee – a levee or a dike is a permanently fixed barrier which is constructed
parallel to the channel and built to be sufficiently higher than the estimated
maximum flood levels in the area.
Self-closing flood barrier ( SCFB) – is designed to prevent floods due to overflow f
natural and artificial waterways from entering property. SCFB’s vary in size
depending on the expanse of area that needs to be protected. There are SCFB’s
built just enough to protect houses but there are also those built big enough to
protect an entire town.
Sea walls – are constructed along coasts to protect communities from being
destroyed by flooding during high tide by storm surge and by tsunamis.
 What to Do Before, During and
After a Flood?
1. Long before the flood
 Find out in your area is prone to flooding on existing flood maps prepared by
the Mines and Geosciences Bureau. Have an easily accessible emergency flood
kit always prepared.
2. Before an impending flood
 Keep tuned in to the news on television and radio for weather updates, flood
warnings and evacuation alerts. Gather or call all family members and/or
persons in our household to inform them of the impending flood so that they
could accordingly plan their activities for the day.
3. During the flood
 avoid having to walk or drive through floodwater. Also make sure to wear boots
to avoid getting electrocuted.
4. After the flood
 Take precautions against rick in entering property that may have been
structurally compromised and contaminated. If water has nit entirely subsided,
make sure to still you weak boots to avoid getting electrocuted.