Flooding in the Netherlands
On January 31st 1995 the Rhine was bursting its banks at the point
where it enters the Netherlands. There was heavy rain over most of
Europe at that particular time this year. Switzerland received three
times its January average and the snow off the Alps melted early and
quickly. The ground was saturated because of the heavy downpours as
and that then once that had drained down it transfers into high water
levels and overland flow. Most of the land which surrounds the Rhine
consists of polders which are low-lying areas enclosed by protective
embankments-these are called dykes. These are man made from sand and
clay and they became saturated so they had more chance of collapsing
so emergency work had to be carried out to stop them from collapsing.
The flood happened because nearly all of the polders were flooding
with the extra rainwater, which meant the extra water had nowhere to
go except from across the urban areas. Also deforestation didn't help
because there was nothing to help intercept the water as it ran across
the valleys and forests. When the flood first happened people where
provided with sandbags as temporary barriers to the flooding, the
authorities installed portable pumps to help people pump out the water
and many other things where put in place to help people. A problem as
most roads became impassable which meant people where stranded from
emergency aid, food and water.250, 000 people had to be evacuated from
there homes before people got killed from the fast flowing water, but
4 people still got killed and hundreds of homes where flooded and some
got damaged beyond repair. Just over 1 million cattle where evacuated
from the worst hit farmland which led to reduced intake of milk from
them because of the disturbance and many got foot rot from being stood
in saturated water all day. The flood damage cost millions of pounds
to insurance companies and homeowners in the worst hit areas. It took
many months to completely clear the devastation that the flood left
Most of the destructions from the events of August 29th 2005, when Katrina Hit the City Of New Orleans, were not only caused by the storm itself; but also, by failure of the engineering of the levee system protecting the entire infrastructure of the city. The years of poor decision making and avoidance of the levee system led to one of the most catastrophic events in the history of the United States. Throughout our research, we have identified three key players in charge of the levee system design, construction and maintenance. These three organizations are the Unites States Corps of Engineers, the New Orleans Levee District and the Louisiana Department of Transportation. The consequences of the hurricane showed the organizations negligence in the design, construction and maintenance of the protective walls. Later independent sresearch showed that more than 50 levees and food walls failed during the passage of the hurricane. This failure caused the flooding of most of New Orleans and all of ST. Bernard Parish. The Unites States Corps of Engineers had been in charge of the of the levee system and flood walls construction since the 1936 flood act. According to the law, the Louisiana Department of Transportation is in charge to inspect the overall design and engineering practices implemented in the construction of the system. Once the levee systems were finished, they were handed over to the New Orleans Levee District for regular maintenance and periodically inspections. The uncoordinated actions of these three agencies resulted in the complete failure of a system that was supposed to protect the people of New Orleans. The evidence is clear that this catastrophic event did not happened by chance. The uncoordinated response of these...
Simonovic, S., Carson, R., W., 2003. Flooding in the Red River Basin – Lessons from Post Flood Activities. Natural Hazards 28(1), 345-365.
The Cumberland and Cumberland River basin experienced a 36 hour rainfall that produced flooding in Nashville and its greater area (After Action Report, II). The 2010 two day storm was believed to be greater than a 100 year event. Storm activity began on May 1st and 2nd which created a large scale flash flood along the Cumberland and Lower Tennessee rivers, and within its tributaries. Historically the Cumberland River basin has received great amounts of precipitation and has experienced extreme rainfall before, making it prone to severe flooding (After Action Report, I). Some of the historic floods that have affected the Cumberland River are the December 1926, January 1927, January 1937 and March 1975 floods, which produced a maximum flood height in much of the river. Before the May 2010 flood, the Cumberland River reached a flood stage of 45.26 feet during the May 1987 flood which was a result of a series of flooding events that took place during an extensive amount of time (After Action Report, 4). The 2010 flood which affected much of Nashville acted more like a flash flood, which produced record breaking rainfall for much of the area. According to the Quantitative Precipitation Forecast (QPF) on April 30th rainfall totaled 7.8 inches across central Tennessee. The report also states that there was a widespread of rainfall equaling to 2 to 6 inch in total, over southeastern US stretching to Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. Rainfall for parts of western Tennessee and Kentucky totaled 3 to 4 inches with a high of 4.65 inches (After Action Report, III). As it is stated by the report areas around Nashville received more than 13 inches of rain in a span of 36 hours, which doubled the record set by the September 1979 flood event. At th...
Historical records, from the time of the Romans to more recent years, have shown that floods along the Arno River are not uncommon. The most recent, major floods along the Arno River occurred in 1117, 1333, 1557, 1666, 1844 and more recently, in 1966. (Alexander, 1993). By these dates, floods along the Arno River are very likely to occur between every one to two hundred years. The city of Florence has survived at least sixty two floods along the Arno river within the last two thousand years. (Alexander, 1993). The Arno River flood of 1966 is the most recent of these floods.
The role of relationship you have with other people often has direct influence on the individual choices and belief in the life. In the short story “on the rainy river”, the author Tim O’Brien inform us about his experiences and how his interacted with a single person had effected his life so could understand himself. It is hard for anyone to be dependent on just his believes and own personal experience, when there are so many people with different belief to influence you choices and have the right choices for you self. Occasionally taking experience and knowledge of other people to help you understand and build from them your own identity and choices in life.
The country of the Netherlands is a place of proud and prospering people with a rich Dutch culture and beautiful cities. Holland is constantly overflowing with innovative ideas and wondrous breakthroughs in agriculture, but for many years the Netherlands has faced a growing issue that is threatening the entire coast and mainland of their country. Global warming has contributed to a consistent increase of rising sea levels. Due to the issue that a majority of the mainland in Holland is well below sea level, the Dutch government has implemented necessary plans to revise the existing costal security program to protect the country from wide scale flooding and to ensure the security of the major cities and historic sites found throughout Holland.
and while they may generate a lot of rainfall in a short time it is
Memphis Tennessee floodings are awful events, but some have left their mark in history, and have impacted society making many people search for solutions. Historical flooding events have dated back beyond 1927, but Memphis’s first calamitous flood was in 1927, then in 2011, but between those dates there have been street floods that happen without interacting with the river. Many important aspects of everyday life are lost during floods such as lives, homes, and money. People have been searching for solutions to prevent floods, and ideas that are executed well could easily become an ideal panacea. Memphis is where I have been raised and experienced several floods, which gives me a much stronger feeling about the history, impacts, and techniques to stop floods.
There are flood stories from many cultures. The flood stories usually consist of a higher power that floods a civilization due to some act that has made the higher power angry. The stories talk about one specific family and how the flood consumes the entire globe. So many cultures have a story about a great flood that have many similar details that it is hard to not believe that it is not true, but whether the story of a great flood is true or not, it is up to the individual to decide.
The following is a report on Australian drought situation. It will identity the definition of the drought, describe the causes of drought, represent impact of drought in Queensland and introduce management to help farmers cope with future drought occurrences.
Rain occurs nature as part of the water cycle, but sometimes rain can do more harm than good. Acid rain can causes damage to plants, animals, and even structures. Acid rain occurs naturally without human interference, but since humans started to make objects that contribute to the creation of acid rain, it happens more frequently than if humans would not be involved. People not only raised the amount of acid rain that falls, they can also be the ones to bring the amount back down to reasonable levels.
Some people think that acid rain can burn skin if it lands on them. This however, does not happen. Acid rain can not burn skin, it still can causes damage to plants, animals, and even structures. Acid rain occurs naturally without human interference, but since humans started to make objects that contribute to the creation of acid rain, it happens more frequently than if humans would not be involved. People not only raised the amount of acid rain that falls, they can also be the ones to bring the amount back down to reasonable levels. In order to help, people must first understand what acid rain is.
Floods of 1998 in Bangladesh and Shrewsbury Causes, Effects and responses to flooding In Shrewsbury The Severn Valley floods, Shrewsbury, UK 1998: Causes = == == = The human causes of the floods were summed up by the then Shadow Countryside Minister Tim Yeo MP, he said 'the flooding had increased because of the housing developments on Greenfield sites.'
Grains, vegetables, and fruit produced from the floods are what fed the families and also brought in wealth and other resources from trading them. In Egypt, the Nile River flooded between August and October. The flood deposited nutrient-rich mud that was called “black mud”. The soil was so damp and rich the Egyptians hardly needed to work it. They could drop the seed and lightly stomp their feet for the seed to sink down and begin to grow. The Mesopotamians had a much harder time controlling the water coming from the annual flood. According to the Kagan Textbook, the people had to build dikes to keep the rivers from flooding the fields in the spring and for storage purposes for use of it in autumn. The floods shaped how water was controlled and utilized within the civilizations whether they needed to let the water run free or build waterways to keep it
Thailand is a tropical country which is part of the Indochina peninsula. Thailand is bordered in the north by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), in the east by Lao PDR and Cambodia, in the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and in the west by the Andaman Sea and the Union of Myanmar (Thailand Population 2013). The total land area is about 512,000 km2. The current population as of 2013 within the Kingdom of Thailand is about 69.52 million people, which is an approximate 6.2% increase from the population taken in the 2010 census (Thailand Population 2013). Every year in this beautiful country flooding in Bangkok is a critical issue which impacts the people of Thailand.