Management | geography16

It is difficult to manage every area which could potentially be affected by flooding, as often there is not enough money to protect all areas.

Flood management techniques can be seperated into two types: Soft Engineering and Hard Engineering.

Flood management has its advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages are in blue. Disadvantages are in red.

Soft Engineering:

Afforestation: Planting tress near the river basin. Increases interception and so reduces runoff, which means the river discharge is lower and so is less likely to flood. Creates new habitats/ improves water quality. Requires a lot of space. Tress take up the nutrients from the soil, which reduces nutrients on farmland.
Floodplain zoning: Restricting the land use of the floodplain. Ensure urbanisation does not occur, which means infiltration can occur and surface runoff is reduced. Limits development in an area.
Wetland Restoration: Creating conditions for the development of wetland (marshes). Wetlands store a large amount of water, which helps to reduce the rivers discharge. Create new habitats. Reduce the land available for flooding.
Alteration of urban surfaces: Building porous pavements or surfaces, which allow infiltration. This reduces the amount of surface runoff. Removes pollutants from the water before it reaches the river channel. This method is expensive to use.

Hard Engineering:

Dams: Giant wall is built across a river channel to impede its flow. Water builds up behind the dam and is steadily drained at a controlled rate. This keeps discharge low. Highly effective at reducing flooding. Used to generate hydroelectric power, which can bring economic benefits to the area. The reservoir that develops can be used for leisure activities. Very expensive. Destroy habitats and forces people out of their homes.
Channel straightening: Blocking off meanders and creating a straighter route, the river begins to flow faster. This means the river flows faster and reduces flooding. A straightened channel is faster to navigate. Flooding becomes more likely downstream.
Levees: Embankments alongside the river channel. They allow building on the floodplain. This can be an expensive method. If the levees are breached, it can cause servere flooding.