Flooding is the most frequent occurring natural hazard on the globe. Man-made activities enhance its intensity and frequency by disturbing the natural ecosystems, as well as climate. Flooding has a lot of consequences including reduction in economic growth and prosperity.
Thesis Statement: Flooding has economic, social and environment concerns, and there is a
need to adopt mitigation strategies to minimize the impacts of this disaster.
- Background/Literature Review
- Classification of flooding
Floods can be classified into river or coastal floods. The phenomenon is associated with low-lying coastal and river flood plains. The river floods can be attributed with excessive rainfalls and coastal floods happen due to tropical cyclones.
- Review of “Hurricane Katrina” that was the most destructive natural disaster and deadliest hurricane in the history of US.
- Review of floods in Pakistan.
- Environmental Changes and Flooding
- Global Warming: Human activities caused environmental changes by increasing global warming. Phenomena of global warming is associated with greenhouse gases.
- Rising Temperature: Rising temperature is mostly caused and aggravated by human activities. These activities include burning of fossil fuel, deforestation and various activities which release greenhouse gases into the environment. Increased temperature is making the melting of the polar caps and rise in sea level. This is resulting in flooding apart from endangers to sea life and put the human environment to risk.
- Increase in Sea Level: Human activities could cause sea level to rise. It could endanger lives around coastlines and damage property. Global warming associated with human activities is the major factor that leads to rising in sea level. The global temperature will most likely rise between 14oC and 5.8oC by the year 2100, and this will lead to a rise in sea level between 9cm to 18cm and hence flooding along coastlines.
- Mitigation Strategies Against Flooding
- Reforestation
Reforestation is an opposite of deforestation. Reforestation is concerned with replanting trees. Reforestation is a natural way of reducing greenhouse effect. This is because trees take in carbon dioxides, a greenhouse gas, and use it for photosynthesis. This also helps to control increase in global temperature and rise in sea levels.
- Regulation against deforestation
Plants and forests are a natural sink of carbon dioxide. Rapid urbanization and industrialization have disturbed this ecosystem. Consequently, GHGs are on the increase and contributing in climate change. Global and local laws should be enforced to save the planet "Earth" and the future generation
- Construction of Levees, Dam, Floodways and Reservoirs:
For years, dams have been constructed for the purpose of building up water reservoirs for various purposes including irrigation and domestic uses and to create power. However, recently, they are being used to control flooding. Flooding can be effectively controlled by constructing coordinated groups of reservoirs and dams on the headwaters of streams that leads to main rivers to store water during heavy runoff periods and then released during dry seasons.
- Town Planning
Town planning is necessary to prevent flooding. It is important that builders obtain the necessary permissions before erecting their buildings in order to ensure that waterways are not blocked. In addition, drainages should always be covered so as to keep objects that would chock and block them away.
- Education:
Enlightenment is one of the most essential keys to preventing flooding. In many developing countries today, drainage systems, waterways and culverts are blocked by people because they lack the necessary enlightenment on the importance of those drainages and hence flooding occurs.
- Sea/Coastal Defense Walls
Tide gates and sea walls are necessary in regions prone to flooding in order to prevent from tidal waves that consequently, push the waters up ashore. Sandbags are also used in some areas to prevent flooding.
- Conclusion
All things considered; flooding is a natural disaster which can utterly damage a city, town or region, but there are numerous aspects and trends that influence the phenomena of flooding. Proper control and mitigation strategies are essential in order to control not only flooding but also other environmental hazards. Some of the controls that could be employed to prevent flooding include building sea/coastal defense walls, retaining walls, town planning, education, reforestation and others.
