Floods today continue to be the most common of natural disasters. Their destructive power cannot be underestimated both from human and environment perspective. There are 2 types of floods: flash floods and the more common river floods. In 1931 the central China flood killed several million people when the Yangtze and Huai rivers broke their banks and flooded huge amounts of land. As a result of the flooding dysentery and cholera (waterborne diseases) ravaged the local population. To make matters worse starvation became a persistent factor for those still living in the flooded areas.
Flooding is not selective, causing death and destruction in both rich developed countries such as the US and in lesser developed countries such as India and Pakistan. The frequency of flooding has increased in the last 50 years due to greenhouse emissions increasing the planet’s lower atmosphere temperature causing more evaporation. The buildup of the moisture is then suddenly released in heavy downpours causing unprecedented floods. The impact of flooding is wide ranging harming wildlife, spreading waterborne diseases, and destroying farm land due to erosion.
While flooding cannot be entirely stopped, the reduction of deforestation and of greenhouse emissions will certainly help in reducing the temperature of the lower atmosphere which in turn will reduce the frequency of heavy rain downpours and storm intensity.
