Greenhouse Gases and Flooding Essay

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Risk of on Floodplains

Flooding is a natural phenomenon, occurring when the build-up in a body of water leads to a discharge which is greater than containment capacity (Paul and Rashid 13). A floodplain is an area located next to the body of water which is usually dry but prone to flooding when the water levels rise beyond the capacity of the river, stream, or other body of water (OAS 1; National Geographic 1). While it is a natural phenomenon, governments and insurance companies view flooding and a risk, with the potential for communities to suffer when flooding occurs, with short-term impacts resulting in damage to property and forcing people out of affected homes, in the longer term there are the potential health impacts with flood water limiting access to essential resources and frequently holding contaminants (Burby 111).

The issue of flooding has become more pertinent with two main factors impacting on its occurrence. Firstly, an increasing population sizes which are resulting in increased demand for homes. To accommodate the needs, more homes have been built on flood plains. This is not only seen in the U.S., where there are more than 6 million buildings located on flood plains (Burby 111), for example, in the UK more than 100,000 new homes are built every year on floodplains (Allen and Bounds 1). Even where buildings are not been placed on, there may be located in areas where construction reduces the ability for rivers run-off which increases the potential that the body wall to exceed its capacity.

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The second impact is global warming; increased levels of water resulting from the warmer climate, which includes the melting of glacial ice (Arnell and Lloyd-Hughes 128; Dahlman and Renwick 96). Issues such as increased levels of greenhouse gases as a result of emission following the burning of fossil fuels are a major impact (Dahlman and Renwick 95).

This is a major issue due to the rising number of floods that are occurring. As rain levels increase, there is a higher potential for a body if water to excide its capacity. The global rise in temperatures is also increasing the potential for hurricanes and flooding as a result of the increased rainfall and surge tides, which increases risks exponentially in hurricane areas such as Florida and Texas (Arnell and Lloyd-Hughes 128). This has led to a position where over the preceding five years, all….....

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