Floods: Causes and Consequences
Introduction
Within the conceptual framework of this research, I would like to elaborate on causes and consequences of floods. There are always floods somewhere in the world. They threat big communities with millions of people, their lives and properties. Big floods always draw international attention. In order to support my discussion about floods with concrete examples, I will talk about causes and consequences of flood using Mississippi River basin.
The flood plain
A river's flood plain is central to any discussion of floods. A broad, nearly flat landform consisting of stream-deposited sediment, the flood plain is inundated by flows in excess of channel capacity (that is, a flood). The flood plain is higher along the edge of the river, built up by deposition of sediment from water overflowing stream banks. As the water leaves the channel, it is abruptly slowed by the reduced gradient and friction of the flood plain. (Ward 1978)
The deposition of sediment along the channel banks produces natural levees which appear as slightly higher ground between the river and its flood plain. The natural levee slopes, often imperceptibly, away from the river so that the lower and less well-drained portion of the flood plain often has standing water, known as a backswamp. The flood plain, including the back-swamp, is extremely important in the natural process of flooding. "If a flood is defined as flow in excess of channel capacity, then the flood plain's role is to store the excess flow until it can be accommodated by the channel." (Wundram 1993) Although some flood water evaporates, most of it flows directly back into the channel or rejoins the channel indirectly by groundwater flow. The flood plain is instrumental in flood control by storing - and slowing - excess water.
Mississippi River
In 1993 the Mississippi River and...
More Oceanography
essays:
Our World's Oceans: Their Importance to Our Planet
... as in the Bengal Fan, this, a result of outflow from the Brahmaputra and Ganges Rivers . Also in this particular example, the Bengal Fan has sediment that ...
Oceanography
... Hydrogenous sediments form as a result of the chemical reactions that occur in the seawater. These reactions result in the formation of small particles, which are deposited on the sea ...
Coral Reefs: Why We Must Save Them.
... reach the water's surface forming a 'barrier' [author's emphasis] to navigation. The Great Barrier Reef in Australia is the most famous example and is the largest barrier reef in the world," (About). The third type of reef ...
"The Hungry Ocean": A look at the book and Oceanography.
... with the ocean needs to have a fairly concrete concept of ocean currents in order to understand where there are warmer waters and cooler waters. Ocean temperatures are one of the most ...
"El Nino and it's effects on coral reefs" What is El nino and how does it affect the ocean?
... and the Galapagos Islands died because of the warm water brought by El Nino. Many of the reefs still have not recovered from that El Nino, and erosion of reef frameworks in Panama ...
The Mariana Trench- Science Report
... deepwater fishing, oil and gas spills, and waste disposal. Most of the deep sea is in international waters, and there is only a limited amount we can do ... to the world, I hope to enlighten you more about the Mariana trench. A question I want to answer remains. With all the depths of the trench ...
Oceanographer: Erwing William Maurice
... knolls in the deep basin of the Gulf of Mexico, and he suggested that they might be salt domes. Fourteen years later he was the chief scientist aboard the oceanographic research ship Glomar Challenger when oil deposits were ...
New Zealand and the Impact of Fishing
... An example of such a species would be the introduced goby Acentrogobious pflaumii. Lastly, contamination of the rivers through livestock feces can cause various diseases to the fish, just as it has to the South Branch of the Potomac River in ... whitefish of the world that makes it to many of the fine ...