Floods in the context of "Coastal flooding"

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⭐ Core Definition: Floods

A flood is an overflow of water (or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. Human changes to the environment often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding. Examples for human changes are land use changes such as deforestation and removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls such as with levees. Global environmental issues also influence causes of floods, namely climate change which causes an intensification of the water cycle and sea level rise. For example, climate change makes extreme weather events more frequent and stronger. This leads to more intense floods and increased flood risk.

Natural types of floods include river flooding, groundwater flooding coastal flooding and urban flooding sometimes known as flash flooding. Tidal flooding may include elements of both river and coastal flooding processes in estuary areas. There is also the intentional flooding of land that would otherwise remain dry. This may take place for agricultural, military, or river-management purposes. For example, agricultural flooding may occur in preparing paddy fields for the growing of semi-aquatic rice in many countries.

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Floods in the context of Water scarcity

Water scarcity (closely related to water stress or water crisis) is the lack of fresh water resources to meet the standard water demand. There are two types of water scarcity. One is physical. The other is economic water scarcity. Physical water scarcity is where there is not enough water to meet all demands. This includes water needed for ecosystems to function. Regions with a desert climate often face physical water scarcity. Central Asia, West Asia, and North Africa are examples of arid areas. Economic water scarcity results from a lack of investment in infrastructure or technology to draw water from rivers, aquifers, or other water sources. It also results from weak human capacity to meet water demand. Many people in sub-Saharan Africa are living with economic water scarcity.

There is enough freshwater available globally and averaged over the year to meet demand. As such, water scarcity is caused by a mismatch between when and where people need water, and when and where it is available. This can happen due to an increase in the number of people in a region, changing living conditions and diets, and expansion of irrigated agriculture. Climate change (including droughts or floods), deforestation, water pollution and wasteful use of water can also mean there is not enough water. These variations in scarcity may also be a function of prevailing economic policy and planning approaches.

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Floods in the context of Point bar

A point bar is a depositional feature made of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the slip-off slope. Point bars are found in abundance in mature or meandering streams. They are crescent-shaped and located on the inside of a stream bend, being very similar to, though often smaller than, towheads, or river islands.

Point bars are composed of sediment that is well sorted and typically reflects the overall capacity of the stream. They also have a very gentle slope and an elevation very close to water level. Since they are low-lying, they are often overtaken by floods and can accumulate driftwood and other debris during times of high water levels. Due to their near flat topography and the fact that the water speed is slow in the shallows of the point bar they are popular rest stops for boaters and rafters. However, camping on a point bar can be dangerous as a flash flood that raises the stream level by as little as a few inches (centimetres) can overwhelm a campsite in moments.

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Floods in the context of List of non-water floods

Most non-water floods (excluding mudflows, oil spills, or volcanic lahars) involve storage facilities suddenly releasing liquids, or industrial retaining reservoirs releasing toxic waste. Storage facility incidents usually cover a small area but can be catastrophic in cities. For example, a molasses tank failure in 1919 led to the Great Molasses Flood that killed 21 people in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.

Industrial retaining reservoirs are often used to store toxic waste, and when they fail they can flood a large area, causing physical and environmental damage. The 2010 failure of a reservoir at the Ajka alumina plant in Hungary flooded a small town and killed several, while the cleanup from the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant spill in Tennessee, U.S. took several years and killed at least 40 workers involved.

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Floods in the context of Mesilla Valley

The Mesilla Valley is a geographic feature of Southern New Mexico and far West Texas. It was formed by repeated heavy spring floods of the Rio Grande.

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Floods in the context of Granary

A granary, also known as a grain house and historically as a granarium in Latin, is a post-harvest storage building primarily for grains or seeds. Granaries are typically built above the ground to prevent spoilage and protect the stored grains or seeds from rodents, pests, floods, and adverse weather conditions. They also assist in drying the grains to prevent mold growth. Modern granaries may incorporate advanced ventilation and temperature control systems to preserve the quality of the stored grains.

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Floods in the context of Population bottleneck

A population bottleneck or genetic bottleneck is a sharp reduction in the size of a population due to environmental events such as famines, earthquakes, floods, fires, disease, and droughts; or human activities such as genocide, speciocide, widespread violence or intentional culling. Such events can reduce the variation in the gene pool of a population; thereafter, a smaller population, with a smaller genetic diversity, remains to pass on genes to future generations of offspring. Genetic diversity remains lower, increasing only when gene flow from another population occurs or very slowly increasing with time as random mutations occur. This results in a reduction in the robustness of the population and in its ability to adapt to and survive selecting environmental changes, such as climate change or a shift in available resources. Alternatively, if survivors of the bottleneck are the individuals with the greatest genetic fitness, the frequency of the fitter genes within the gene pool is increased, while the pool itself is reduced.

The genetic drift caused by a population bottleneck can change the proportional random distribution of alleles and even lead to loss of alleles. The chances of inbreeding and genetic homogeneity can increase, possibly leading to inbreeding depression. Smaller population size can also cause deleterious mutations to accumulate.

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Floods in the context of List of the costliest tropical cyclones

This is a list of costliest tropical cyclones, listed by tropical cyclone basin. Damage tolls of tropical cyclones are listed and ranked in USD of the year of the tropical cyclone, although inflation-adjusted figures are also supplied. The main effects of tropical cyclones include strong winds, heavy rainfall, storm surge, floods, tornadoes, and landslides. This list is based on property damage done directly by a tropical cyclone.

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Floods in the context of Operation Surya Hope

Operation Surya Hope was the Indian Army’s Central Command response to the June 2013 North India floods in Uttarakhand.

The Uttarakhand flood was caused by record off-season monsoon rains, cloud burst, floods, flash floods, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs), which were possibly induced by climate change. The humanitarian disaster affected millions, stranded over 100,000 pilgrims and tourists in Himalayan religious sites, and killed several thousand people.The Indian Army's Lucknow based Central Command conducted the operation. Surya or Sun, is the emblem of the Central Command and features prominently on the Command's formation sign and flag, which is probably why Central Command chose to name the effort Operation Surya Hope.

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