Updated April 2007
Here is an ADVICE ON FLOODING exercise (hosted on GeographyPages) which could also be used with GCSE groups and involves some simple research based on a number of particular flooding events. Many pupils will perhaps have personal experience of flooding - use it, and record it for future use...
For research into river flows, use the NATIONAL WATER ARCHIVE, which has links through to the NERC and the CEH. (E-mail the former for some useful free resources) This will give you details of drainage basin and discharge over the Water Year (which starts on the 1st of October remember..) for rivers in the UK. A very valuable site. It has details of over 200 UK rivers, and you can look at the average flow in cumecs and the drainage basin: I do a scattergraph exercise where we look at the correlation between the two. Recommended.
There's also the useful FLASH FLOOD LAB or the FLOOD page. You could do worse than start a clippings file too. Rarely a day goes by without some useful and relevant news story.
Doing some HYDROLOGY CALCULATIONS ? - this site can help.
THE GEOGRAPHY PORTAL has an online tutorial which tests graph, map and essay skills on FLOOD HYDROGRAPHS. This is well worth a visit as it takes you through the labelling of a model hydrography, and the factors which affect its shape.
There's a good selection of links from GEOMAN's HYDROLOGY PAGE, by Mike Strickler.
Floodplain zoning is one 'answer' to problems caused by flooding. The city of PALO ALTO in California has some good ideas on zoning areas, and providing a range of insurance. A useful Q&A page here.
A useful CHRONOLOGY OF BRITISH HYDROLOGICAL EVENTS here at Dundee University.
An investigation into INFILTRATION CAPACITY.
Pictures of a school's river fieldtrip to INGLETON in the Yorkshire Dales. The Waterfalls walk was always a favourite of mine. Remember spending a weekend in a caravan under the viaduct with 'B' and a few other Huddersfield friends. Worth visiting White Scar caves too, and there's a good chippy in Ingleton.
Go to the Bootham school site and look at the excellent online lecture by Hydrologist Mike Stokes. The lecture is one given to the local GA association and has some excellent maps, photos and text which could be made into a useful lesson with a bit of adaptation, or you could produce a question sheet to use with it. Go HERE for the index of slides.
Details on the EAST COAST FLOODS of 1953. Lots of archive material (see earlier...)
For images of Shrewsbury being flooded by the River Severn in November 2000, go HERE. You can use them in your project or website as long as you credit the webmaster of the site, and there are some good pictures on several pages to use. The name of the JPG gives a clue as to its subject matter. More similar photos HERE.
One of the most studied floods was the 1993 flooding along the Mississippi River. You can now access the data from the US CORPS OF ENGINEERS relating to the flood. A valuable online resource. Has many GIF's of maps of flood damaged areas. Would be all that you needed for a detailed report on the floods with very specific examples of damage that might be needed for an essay question. Recommended.
How do you decide whether or not a river is prone to flooding ? Obviously you have to take into account all aspects of the river's drainage basin and then make a RIVER FORECAST. These are usually based on past flooding records, which is a valid technique, but there may be changes in the catchment which change the response.
Another very useful site is that of the Military corps who have spent years trying to control the MISSISSIPPI. The site linked to from here has some good FLASH animations, and has a useful RIVER ADVENTURE section.
Some useful IMAGES and information from the Cambridge University Centre for Risk in the Built Environment at the CURBE FLOODS page.
Another detailed, but very useful site is that of FLOODRISK.NET which has a range of resources and information relating to: "Flood and coastal risk, reliability and uncertainty network".
Remarkably, the floods of the 16th of August claimed no lives. A 3m wall of water forced its way through the village causing tremendous damage running into millions of pounds. This incident may well become the 'new Lynmouth' as regards GCSE etc. case studies. Of course the incident which 'grabs' the pupils is the one which is best, even if it's perhaps not the most recent. A number of websites have already proved themselves useful resources. A search in the archives of all the major news sites should also produce a range of resources.
Laurie H has some useful PICTURES already available.
Try the SOUTH WEST 999 site for more information from the emergency crews who attended the scene. There are a series of pages which show the scene as the crews began to arrive, and the
BOSCASTLE CORNWALL has some useful images and information.
THIS IS CORNWALL is a local site which has links to 70 articles in the local paper. Local papers and news sections of the BBC are a useful place to find local resources.
A book has now been published by WILLOW PRESS. It's available online at £4.99 (+ £2.50 p&p) - also a special issue of the Meteorology magazine.
The MET OFFICE have also published information relating to the statistics of the rainfall that night on their site HERE.
BOSCASTLE also available at GEOGRAPHY IN THE NEWS.
It is also the subject of a sample issue of KEYFILE, which is available from the GEO PROJECTS site.
A superb COSTING THE EARTH programme broadcast on Radio 4. Thanks to the excellent listen again feature I managed to catch this programme, and it may still be on the website if you check. On the same day I also caught the excellent 'Christmas in Boscastle' on BBC News 24.
Various excellent information extracted from the programme:
Weather report for day: "Scattered showers will begin to form during the morning, becoming heavy in places by the afternoon".
Catchment prone to flash flood was hit by a bad storm. Weather is becoming more extreme and intense.
Very thin soils.
Hard rock.
Steep catchment. Very steep slopes and the river closes in and gets narrower.
River Jordan, and River Valency are the 2 main rivers, which meet below the Wellington Hotel. Floor of room above the bar collapsed.
Water level was up to the top of the windows in Marine Terrace behind the hotel.
Several rivers meeting in narrow valley floor, and then on down into the harbour, which has a breakwater.
All 3 rivers in the basin went into flood.
Would have been overland flow in the fields higher up the catchment due to the intensity.
At least 100 cumecs during the flood - normally between 1 and 2 cumecs. 100 times the usual flow within 20 minutes. Very intense rainfall cell hit the catchment.
Layer of saturated air about half a kilometre deep. This was a particularly rare occasion called: CONVERGENCE. Large set of thundery showers moved in from ocean and met offshore winds. Forced the moist saturated air to rise and produce tremendous potential for rain.
River rose very quickly: rose about 8 inches in 2 hours, then 5 feet in around 20 minutes, meaning around a 6 foot rise within the hour.
Steep cliffs. Storm cells went spinning off the cliffs and generated uplift. Cliffs increased the rainfall.
Debris dams likely to be breaking in the upper half of the catchment - produced the wall of water which people saw coming down through the village. Blockages (trees etc.) hold up the water for a while, and a lake builds up behind, this then bursts and a surge of water comes down the valley - happened during the Lynmouth flood.
Top bridge parapet collapsed soon, and cars from the car park went over the bridge.
Graham King, local Coastguard observer was convinced that there were people in the cars that were being 'tossed around like cardboard boxes'. Hazard lights were on, and thought there were people in them. Cars were hitting the rooves of buildings.
Need to reduce VULNERABILITY in the future, which is why the rebuilding involves constructing a huge conduit. There is a much wider river channel built in LYNMOUTH.
Can we engineer the town in order to stop the event happening again ? Walls can be built, but they are ugly. Rivers which are diverted can revert to their original source. Need to protect people and property to reduce the risk: raise electrics, and use more flood resistant materials.
People could learn basic water rescue techniques. Create a community which can deal with such events.
People are positive about the future.
A PDF leaflet can be downloaded from the NORTH CORNWALL DISTRICT COUNCIL site, which also has an in depth report on the flood. The PDF leaflet is nice as it has a TIMELINE showing the speed with which the event escalated. There are also some useful images which I used in a POWERPOINT in the lesson.
The ENVIRONMENT AGENCY report on the floods, which suggested that the event was a 1 in 400 year event and that houses which had been demolished could be rebuilt is available by clicking the link above.
Make sure that you check out the Environment Agency's YOUR ENVIRONMENT publication:
