Flood
hideA flood is an overflow or accumulation of an expanse of water that submerges land. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its normal boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area.
Floods can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows out of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders and causes damage to homes and businesses along such rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is evidence that the perceived value of living near the water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.
The word "flood" comes from the Old English flod, a word common to Germanic languages (compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float). The specific term "The Flood," capitalized, usually refers to the great Universal Deluge described in the Bible, in Genesis, and is treated at Deluge.
For more information about Flood, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with flood
Scientists pinpoint origin of dissolved arsenic in Bangladesh drinking water
Nov 15, 2009 |
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Researchers in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering believe they have pinpointed a pathway by which arsenic may be contaminating the drinking water in Bangladesh, a phenomenon that has puzzled ...
Tibet drought worst in 30 years: Chinese state media
Jun 20, 2009 |
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A drought in Tibet has intensified into the region's worst in three decades, leaving thousands of hectares parched and killing more than 13,000 head of cattle, China's state media said Saturday.
Danube delta holds answers to 'Noah's flood' debate (Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Jan 23, 2009 |
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Did a catastrophic flood of biblical proportions drown the shores of the Black Sea 9,500 years ago, wiping out early Neolithic settlements around its perimeter? A geologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) ...
Dutch build more dunes against rising seas
Nov 20, 2009 |
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On the beach at Monster, bulldozers painstakingly turn sand dredged from the bottom of the North Sea bed into dunes in an ambitious effort to safeguard the Netherlands from flooding.
Expect the unexpected when adapting to climate change in Africa, says researcher
Oct 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Nations, communities and families in Africa need to safeguard their homes and livelihoods against the unpredictable effects of climate change, according to a discussion paper written by Imperial ...
Scientists prepare for large-scale glacial floods (w/ Video)
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Surging floods as powerful as the Amazon could hit parts of Europe within decades, according to new research.
Report: Calif. needs to think small to save water
Jul 24, 2009 |
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(AP) -- By investing in water-saving technology, California's drought-burdened farmers could save enough water annually to fill four times over a reservoir that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports building, according to ...
Taiwan scientists identify flood-tolerant gene in rice
Oct 11, 2009 |
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A Taiwanese scientist has said her research team has found the gene that allows rice to grow under water and believes the breakthrough could help develop other flood-resistant crops.
Soil moisture and ocean salinity satellite ready for launch
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 29, 2009 |
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A new European Earth observation satellite will be launched in the early hours of Monday morning (2 November 2009) from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.
China says planning more dams on troubled Yangtze
Apr 21, 2009 |
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China will build at least 20 more reservoirs or hydroelectric projects in the Yangtze river system by 2020, the government said Tuesday, despite growing concerns over dam construction there.
Global warming to triple rain over Taiwan: scientist
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Oct 13, 2009 |
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Global warming will cause the amount of heavy rain dumped on Taiwan to triple over the next 20 years, facing the government with the urgent need to beef up flood defences, a scientist warned Tuesday.
Dutch help California's Bay Area plan for sea level rise
Sep 22, 2009 |
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How to plan for sea level rise, a still-abstract concept for many Californians, drew serious consideration from engineers, designers and urban planners from Holland and the U.S. at a symposium held on Monday.
Sequence matters in droughts and floods
Biology /
Jan 08, 2009 |
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When extremes of drought and flood come in rapid succession, the extent of damage to vegetation may depend in part on the sequence of those events, according to a new study published in The American Naturalist.
Vegetation hardly affected by extreme flood events
Sep 24, 2008 |
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Extreme flood events in floodplain grasslands affect carabid beetles and molluscs more than plants. This is the finding of a study by biologists from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), ...
Researchers use satellites to measure inland floods
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Dec 17, 2008 |
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Satellites that were designed to measure sea level over the world's oceans can serve a valuable purpose over land, a new study has found.
