Article 1 for your Home Reading Reflection (HHR)

HHR1. Causes and Effects of Floods Target Reading Skills: Cause and Effect
around the World

Source: https://earth.org/what-are-the-main-causes-and-effects-of-floods/

Floods are among the most devastating natural disasters that occur worldwide, affecting
millions of people and causing significant damage to both human settlements and the
environment. As our planet experiences the impacts of climate change and human activities
continue to alter landscapes, understanding the main causes and effects of floods becomes
increasingly crucial. In this article, we delve into the factors that contribute to flooding and
explore the wide-ranging consequences it has on our ecosystems and communities.

What Are the Different Types of Floods?

Before we examine the causes and effects of floods, it’s important to note that various types of
floods can occur worldwide. There are two types of floods that are most common: flash floods
and river floods.

Flash floods, as the name suggests, are the rapid rise of water levels from excessive rainfall in
low-lying areas. These weather events are incredibly dangerous and can often lead to fatalities
due to their destructive power and incredible speed, often not giving people enough time to
escape to higher grounds or adopt protective measures. Flash floods tend to be more common
in areas with a dry climate and rocky terrain due to lack of soil or vegetation, which acts as a
defense or barrier against torrential rains flowing overland.

River flooding on the other hand, occurs when a river overspills its banks and river waters can
no longer be contained within its channel. These events are more common in areas with a
wetter climate and have longer rainstorm seasons, as well as areas close to melting snow and
ice.

What Are the Main Causes of Floods?

Floods can occur due to several different, and often simultaneous, factors. However, one of the
biggest causes of floods, especially in cases of flash floods, is excessive and heavy rainfall.
When rainfall in low-lying areas and urban environments fall faster than the ground can absorb,
water height rapidly rise, resulting in floods. Extreme rainfall in river courses contribute to
flooding as well, as water travels down and overflows riverbanks onto surrounding land.

Sea overflow can also cause floods, in an event also known as a storm surge. This occurs
during tropical storms, cyclones and hurricanes, where these types of weather events cause
sea water to overflow onto the land in coastal regions. Sea water levels have been recorded to
rise as high as 20 feet during storm surges.

Rapid melting of snow and ice similarly causes a surge of sea water, while blocks of melting
ice could block the flow of a river, creating a phenomenon known as ice jams.

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Dam failures and breakage can also send a powerful and destructive surge of water
downstream. One of the most devastating dam failures in history took place in 1889 in
Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Several days of extraordinarily heavy rain placed severe pressure
on the local dam, causing it to fail and releasing 20 million tons of water to the town, and more
than 2,200 people died within minutes.

What Are the Biggest Effects of Floods?

More than 2 billion people worldwide were affected by floods between 1998-2017. And that
number continues to climb as occurrences of major flood events become more frequent and
severe.

Flooding, especially flash floods, can devastate entire cities and urban environments.
Throughout history, many have lost their lives as a result of rapid floods, or events caused by
severe flooding such as landslides and collapsed infrastructure.

One of the biggest consequences and effects of floods is that people lose their home and
property, and essential buildings and infrastructures such as hospitals and elderly homes are
left incapacitated. Loss of power and mobile communication is a common occurrence during
floods, which can impact livelihoods and access to safety.

Floods can have huge economic repercussions to a region, as extreme weather events impact
key industries and sectors, notably agriculture, fishing, food crops, health, labor and tourism.
Studies have found that frequent flooding could shave 11% off a region’s GDP by the end of
the century. Countries often take years to recover economically following the loss of resources.

People who live in regions close to rivers, in wetter climates and prone to monsoon seasons
are significantly more vulnerable to floods. Many south and southeast Asian countries such as
Bangladesh – a third of which was under water at one point in 2020 – and India have been
particularly hit hard by flood events in recent years due to their low-lying lands and dense
populations.

Consequently, there’s been high rates of mass migration and population displacement over the
past few decades, causing overcrowding in urban cities and expanding the urban poor. This
leads to potential long-term social inequalities and unrest.

Climate Change is Exacerbating the Effects of Floods

Flooding has been made more likely by climate change, according to a 2021 study by climate
experts. In the case of Western Europe, downpours in the region, which caused the flash floods
that killed nearly 200 people, are now 3-19% heavier due to human-caused warming.

For countries that are already prone to rainy seasons, particularly in Asia, climate models
predict climate change will lead to more intense flooding and prolong existing monsoon
seasons. A typical monsoon season in Asia last from June to September. The effects of climate
change could potentially result in an earlier arrival or departure of monsoons, disrupting

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agricultural and crop production, as well as increasing extreme precipitation over the region as
more greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere.

What Can Be Done?

One of the most salient short-term solutions is for countries, especially those in high flood risk
regions, to prioritize investments in flood adaptation strategies. This means building more
resilient infrastructure that are designed to withstand floods and water damage.

China, for example, has been investing heavily in ‘sponge city’ concepts, the development of
which could potentially help control and mitigate flooding, and recycle rainwater resources and
re-instate degraded environments at the same time. Building seawalls can be an effective form
of coastal defense and protection in dealing with storm surges and flooding events associated
with tropical storms.

Managed retreat, which refers to a purposeful and coordinated movement of people and
infrastructure away from high risk areas, is a solution that is worth considering. With more
frequent and intense flooding events, forced migration and population displacement is already
a growing problem, which as discussed earlier, brings with it a wealth of complex social and
economic issues. A managed retreat, which can occur over time and allow systems that
account for migrants and displaced people to be in place, can be less traumatic for people and
potentially less expensive in the long run.

However ultimately, the most effective way to mitigate climate change and worsening flooding
events is to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. We need to dedicate ourselves to
decarbonizing transportation and investing a lot more and faster into renewable energy and
technologies. While many high income countries such as the US have made net zero goals by
2050 and are pushing for more electric vehicles, a majority of the countries are doing far too
little and at too slow a pace to tackle the exacerbating climate crisis.