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Hydropower and Floods
Published in Saeid Eslamian, Faezeh Eslamian, Flood Handbook, 2022
Sachin Kumar, Aanchal Singh S. Vardhan, Akanksha Singh S. Vardhan, R. K. Saket, D.P. Kothari, Saeid Eslamian
The most common cause of flooding is watercourses' incapability to drain away water during unusually heavy rainfall. Floods, however, are not always caused by heavy rainfall. They can result from other natural or human-made phenomena. For instance, inundation in coastal areas can be caused by a storm surge associated with a tropical cyclone, a tsunami, or a high tide, particularly when the rivers are flowing at a higher than normal river level. Inundation of normally dry areas can be caused by a dam failure, triggered, for example, by an earthquake. Other factors that may contribute to flooding include rivers or streams overflowing their banks, encroachment of encroaches land areas by sea-water during high tides, excessive rain (coupled with poor drainage system), a ruptured dam or levee, ground cover and topography, rapid ice melting in the mountains, and an unfortunately placed beaver dam. Flooding can also occur due to an earthquake-triggered landslide blocking the channel or when such a temporary dam is swept away due to increasing water levels. Coastal flooding occurs when a large storm or tsunami causes the sea to surge inland.
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Published in Yared Abayneh Abebe, Modelling Human-Flood Interactions, 2021
Hurricane-induced storm surges may also cause coastal flooding. As the economy of Sint Maarten is tourism-led, many businesses in the hospitality industry are situated very close to the coastline. That increases damages and losses in case of coastal flooding. The potential impact due to hurricanes and isolated heavy rainfalls has increased considerably over the recent years with the economic and population growth on the island.
Resilience and Coastal Ecosystems: Three Typologies, Three Design Approaches
Published in Elizabeth Mossop, Sustainable Coastal Design and Planning, 2018
Steven N. Handel, Gina Ford, Briana Hensold
Practices to support tourism and other development have impacted the underlying ecology and resiliency of the beach and shore communities. The shore's relevancy and geography are ultimately much deeper than the narrow strand of sand that is often defined as the beach. In New Jersey, deep sandy soils extend inland to the expansive, ecologically rich pine forests, the Pine Barrens (Forman, 1998). A series of 22 coastal lakes and myriad rivers and creeks extend into estuarine and other wetlands environments inland kilometers from the coast. Storm surge and coastal flooding pose increasing threats to the coastline. Consequently, the inland environment and patterns of development mean that watershed flooding impacts will also constitute a significant portion of the future threat in the region. Ultimately, the Jersey Shore's future resiliency cannot only be solved through engineering solutions that address the immediate coast; a resilient beach is linked to projects that deepen the physical extent, ecological reach, and cultural understanding of the beach. Considering the economic, ecological, and cultural conditions of the Jersey Shore, we have developed three approaches for its future resiliency: (1) A regional program for environmental improvements along the shore; (2) Local interventions in three specific sites that will serve as replicable “pilot” solutions for the diverse issues that sea level rise and future weather events present; and (3) These design interventions may have wide applicability to other areas confronting similar threats. While many economies are driven by urbanism (linked physically to dense cities) the economies of beaches are an exception, driven instead by the underlying and diverse coastal ecology. Our research focused on understanding the characteristics and vulnerabilities of the coast, considering specifically the links between economy, ecology, and culture along the beach. Since the human experience and impact on the coast is such an integral part of our research, we defined our coastline as much deeper than this literal land-ocean edge, reaching kilometers inland from the ocean to encompass a more diverse ecological landscape, as well as residential and commercial development.
Flood hazards in urban environment
Published in Georisk: Assessment and Management of Risk for Engineered Systems and Geohazards, 2023
Liang Gao, Limin Zhang, Yang Hong, Hong-Xin Chen, Shi-Jin Feng
Floods are the most frequent disasters affecting urban areas worldwide. Urban flooding generally includes pluvial, fluvial, coastal and groundwater flooding. Pluvial flooding occurs when the surface runoff due to rainfall overwhelms the capability of the drainage system. Fluvial flooding occurs when the surface runoff in a river or lake exceeds the capacity of natural or artificial channels to accommodate the flow. Coastal flooding is due to tidal surges and waves. Groundwater flooding results from high ground water levels. An urban flood event can stem from a complex combination of the above causes, but storm is always the most important triggering factor, which brings abundant rainfall. A large number of catastrophic storm-induced urban flooding disasters have been reported around the world, such as floods in Mumbai (2005) and Chennai (2015) in India, in New Orleans (2005), New York (2012) and Houston (2017) in the United States of America and in Fuzhou (2005), Beijing (2012), Macau (2017) and Zhengzhou (2021) in China (Table 1). These urban disasters have caused numerous casualties and severe damages.
Impact of flood hazards on pavement performance
Published in International Journal of Pavement Engineering, 2020
Donghui Lu, Susan L. Tighe, Wei-Chau Xie
Flood sources are shown in Figure 2. Fluvial (river) flooding is caused by sustained and intense rainfall, leading to the bursting of rivers or streams. Pluvial (surface water) flooding occurs when there is an extremely heavy downpour of rain such that the excessive water cannot be absorbed by the drainage system. Coastal flooding is caused by extreme tide conditions including high tides, storm surges and tsunamis. Reservoir flooding happens when there is a dam failure. Ground water flooding occurs when the underground aquifers overflow onto the surface and stop water from draining. A blocked drainage system exacerbates the situation, leading to localised flooding. The sources vary from region to region.
Resilience in major Australian cities: assessing capacity and preparedness to respond to extreme weather events
Published in International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2018
Major floods have occurred periodically in Brisbane (1893, 1974 and 2011), Melbourne and Adelaide. All six cities have experienced location-specific flooding from time to time. Heavy rainfall is the major cause of flooding, although coastal flooding caused by sea-level rise due to climate change scenarios is figuring in planning and land-management strategies. Inland floods are often well telegraphed, and may take well over a month to arrive. In contrast, the cities being discussed here are likely to be affected by flash floods, where the impacts are much more immediate (Bureau of Meteorology, 2015).