Topic 1- River Flooding

Question 1

What is surface run off?

Answer 1

Water flows across the ground straight into the river if it’s very dry or wet.

Question 2

What is infiltration?

Answer 2

Water moves downwards into the soil from the surface

Question 3

What is soil moisture storage?

Answer 3

Water fills the pores between soil particles

Question 4

What is percolation?

Answer 4

Water moves deep downwards into the impermeable rock

Question 5

What is soil moisture flow?

Answer 5

Water flows horizontally through the soil towards the river.

Question 6

What is ground water storage?

Answer 6

Water fills in the cracks in the rock and is stored deep underground

Question 7

What is ground water flow?

Answer 7

Water flows very slowly horizontally towards the river through the ground water rocks

Question 8

What is interception?

Answer 8

Leaves and buildings catch rain as it falls to the ground and stores the water

Question 9

What is evaporation?

Answer 9

Water droplets (puddles/lakes/rivers/sea) are heated and become vapour (gas) and rise into the air

Question 10

What is condensation?

Answer 10

As water vapour rises, it cools. When it cools enough, it turns back to droplets in clouds

Question 11

What is precipitation?

Answer 11

It is when water falls to the ground as rain, snow, hail and sleet

Question 12

What is the watershed?

Answer 12

The area of high land forming the edge of a river basin

Question 13

What is the source?

Answer 13

Where a river begins

Question 14

What is the mouth?

Answer 14

Where a river meets the sea

Question 15

What is the confluence?

Answer 15

The point at which two rivers meet

Question 16

What is the tributary?

Answer 16

A small river or stream that joins a larger river

Question 17

What is the river channel?

Answer 17

This is where the river flows

Question 18

What is the drainage basin?

Answer 18

This is the area of land by a river and it’s tributaries

Question 19

What are the five parts in the hydrological cycle?

Answer 19

Evaporation, condensation, precipitation, infiltration, and river flow and runoff

Question 20

What is river flooding?

Answer 20

River flooding is when a river has too much water than it’s channel can hold. The water level (discharge) then flows over the river bank and onto the surrounding land (floodplain)

Question 21

Give seven examples of factors that increase the chance of flooding?

Answer 21

Impermeable rock, steep relief, deforestation, urbanistaion/storm drains, farming/ploughing, saturated soil, dry soil

Question 22

What factors that increased the chance of flooding during the Boscastle flood?

Answer 22

Boscastle is at the confluence of three rivers, the rain storm was intense, deforestation occurred very close by, there is a lot of impermeable sandstone and clay soil, the main bridge was blocked, and the storm drains were not designed for such large amounts of water.

Question 23

Which of the factors that helped the Boscastle flood were human factors?

Answer 23

Deforestation, the main bridge was blocked and the storm drains were not designed for such large amounts of water.

Question 24

Which of the factors that helped the Boscastle flood were physical factors?

Answer 24

Boscastle is at the confluence of three rivers, the rain storm was intense and the land around had a lot of impermeable sandstone and clay soil.

Question 25

What were the three types of impacts that the Boscastle flood caused?

Answer 25

Economic, social and environmental.

Question 26

What were the economic impacts caused in the Boscastle flood?

Answer 26

Long-term cost of the flooding could be £50m, huge drop in tourists bringing money into the area, the village could lose £25m from business loss.

Question 27

What were the social impacts caused in the Boscastle flood?

Answer 27

Many possessions including houses were destroyed, insurance for home owners there has increased a lot, insurance will only be able to cover most of the damage, many people became unemployed, people became temporarily homeless.

Question 28

What were the environmental impacts caused in the Boscastle flood?

Answer 28

Trees were uprooted and swept into peoples gardens, river banks, gardens, and local wildlife habitats were destroyed from the water, costal pollution occurred as debris like car fuel flowed into the sea.

Question 29

What is flood management?

Answer 29

Flood managements: methods used to prevent the impacts of flooding.

Question 30

What is meant by hard engineering in flood management?

Answer 30

Hard engineering:involves building man made structures which aim to control the flow of rivers and prevent flooding, using technological solutions.

Question 31

What is meant by soft engineering in flood management?

Answer 31

Soft engineering: works with natural processes to reduce the effect of flooding, these are usually more environmentally sustainable.

Question 32

Give three examples of hard engineering methods in flood management?

Answer 32

Dams, straightening the river, levees

Question 33

Give three examples of soft engineering methods in flood management?

Answer 33

Afforestation, land use zoning, flood warnings

Question 34

What is meant by a sustainable flood managements scheme/method?

Answer 34

A sustainable flood management scheme/method reduces the flood risk (likelihood and/or effect) over a long period of time and over a wide scale. The benefits outweigh the cost, without causing damage to the environment or peoples jobs or lives.