Case Studies

Question 0

Cumbria flood location?

Answer 0

Cockermouth, UK.

Question 1

What are our flooding case studies?

Answer 1

Cumbria and Pakistan.

Question 2

Cumbria date?

Answer 2

2009

Question 3

Cumbria physical causes?

Answer 3

Jet stream brought unseasonably warm ‘moist

Question 4

Cumbria human causes?

Answer 4

Constrained floodplain, urbanisation. Bridge at Gote Road (damming effect). EA refused to dredge.

Question 5

Cumbria social impacts?

Answer 5

1 person killed. 500 people in emergency shelters. 5 secondary schools shut and 13 primary schools. 150 properties not returned to a year later. 198 people sought psychological help.

Question 6

Cumbria economic impacts?

Answer 6

£276 million in damages. 20 road bridges destroyed and 200 footbridges. Businesses and trading disrupted. 110 farms affected. £15 million lost in tourism. Insurance costs.

Question 7

Cumbria responses?

Answer 7

EA issued flood warnings. Gordon Brown gave £1 million for clean-up and £5.4 million for repairs. Army involved as well as Cumbria fire and rescue.

1 year on Cumbria had recovered.

Question 8

Pakistan location?

Answer 8

Indus floodplain.

Question 9

Pakistan date?

Answer 9

Summer 2010

Question 10

Pakistan physical causes?

Answer 10

Jet stream combined with seasonal monsoon rains. 274mm in 24 hours. 3 months of rain in only a week. High sedimentation rates. Isolated areas like Swat Valley more vulnerable.

Question 11

Pakistan human causes?

Answer 11

Densely populated, constrained floodplain. 2/3 reliant on fairing so lived close to river for fertile soils and irrigation. Poor infrastructure and communication. Deforestation in Himalayas. Sukkur Barrage breached.

Question 12

Pakistan social impacts?

Answer 12

2000 dead. 20 million homeless. 10 million drinking unsafe water. 11,000 schools damaged. Entires villages washed away. Cholera, diarrhoea and typhoid.

Question 13

Pakistan economic impacts?

Answer 13

£10 billion in damages. £7 billion on infrastructure alone. Farming badly hit.

Question 14

Pakistan responses?

Answer 14

Slow and uncoordinated. American army helicopters formed essential relief for remote areas. Families given $230 cash and one month of food. “Donor fatigue” from Haiti. President has slow response. Taliban took advantage.

Question 15

Hard engineering flood management strategies?

Answer 15

Dams (Three Gorges, China)
Straightening river (Mississippi, USA)
Building up of levees (River Cherwell)
Diversion spillways (Thame and Severn, UK)

Question 16

Three Gorges Dam?

Answer 16

Yangtze River, China. $25 billion cost. Reduced risk from 1-in-10 year even to 1-in-100. Protects 15 million people. Generates HEP. Produces pollution. 1.4 billion people forcibly loved from their homes.

Question 17

Straightening river?

Answer 17

To reduce sinuosity and increase velocity to take water away from constrained floodplain, Mississippi, USA. Increases risk downstream.

Question 18

Build up of levees?

Answer 18

Increases the bank full capacity, increase river Cherwell by 150%. Yet can increase severity of eventual flooding.

Question 19

Diversion spillways?

Answer 19

Act as overflows. Need continual dredging to maintain capacity.

Question 20

Soft engineering flood management strategies?

Answer 20

Forecasts and warnings
Land use management on floodplain
Afforestation
Ecological flooding

Question 21

Forecasts and warnings?

Answer 21

Conducted by EA in UK. Used in Cumbria.

Question 22

Land use and management on floodplain?

Answer 22

Floodplain zoning. A risk assessed system that provides a severity value for planners.

Question 23

Afforestation?

Answer 23

Yellow River, China. Interception store increase by 200%.

Question 24

Ecological flooding?

Answer 24

River Rhine, Germany. Re-establishes water meadows that are periodically flooded.