FLOODS IN LEDC / MEDC

MISSISSIPPI 1993 lower down the page

BANGLADESH

Most syllabuses ask for details of floods in contrasting countries. This page has a printable worksheet on the flooding in Bangladesh: this is often exacerbated by tropical cyclones. There are 3 major river

http://www.unescap.org/drpad/publication/integra/modalities/bangladesh/4bl000ct.htm - a whole range of resources

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/what_we_do/where_we_work/bangladesh/emergency/riverbasin/index.htm - an excellent resource from Oxfam, which looks at a range of projects which can save lives. There are 6 particular projects which are mentioned:

a) Cluster village: these are villages which have been raised at least 7 feet above flood level.

b) Flood shelter (killa)

c) Raised homestead

d) Preparedness committees

e) Rescue boats

f) Radios

BANGLADESH FLOODING

Copy out the passage and fill in the missing words from the wordbank at the bottom:

Bangladesh is almost _____ % made up of river floodplains, and a large number of its 120 ________ population live in areas which are prone to flooding.

There are 4 major rivers which meet in the country, the Ganges, Meghna, Jamuna and ______________.These are not only large rivers, but much of their channel lies in other countries such as _________, so Bangladesh is at the mercy of changes made upstream such as the large scale _______________ of wooded areas.

Many people live on small temporary islands in the middle of the river channel called ________, which can disappear during a large flood.

When a river floods, natural banks or ________ are created by large particles being deposited.

There is a distinction to be made between flooding, which is the normal annual inundation of the _________, and floods which are abnormal conditions when the river level is much ________ than normal. This often occurs during the rainy season called the __________.

People adapt by raising their houses up, and taking advantage of the good catches of _______ in the silt-laden waters of the delta.

The principal crop is ________ which is ideal.

The Government has tried to reduce the impact by using ___________ to track approaching storms and providing concrete storm shelters called ________, although these are often in great demand.

The country is currently spending large sums of money to try to control future floods using embankments. The overall scheme is known as the Flood Action Plan (__________)

WORDBANK

Brahmaputra , Floodplain , Killas , FAP , Chars , Deforestation , Rice , Monsoon , higher , Levees , Prawns , 80 , Nepal , million , Satellites

In 1972 the country's Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) was established, but its warnings often arrived too late, or not at all, as many people had no access to TV, radio, newspapers or Internet. It is estimated that warnings only reach 50% of the rural poor. Trials have started with loudspeakers in mosques broadcasting warnings during prayer meetings.

MISSISSIPPI FLOODING

More to come...

'Old Glory' has flooded many times in its long history. The last severe floods were in 1993, and some debate has raged since on whether the floods were made worse by the attempts of the US Engineers to control the river. Certainly the building of the extensive levee network meant that more water was contained within the channel than ever before.

• A virtual textbook, called GEOCASES has a CASE STUDY OF THE 1993 FLOODS for you to work through with some excellent large slides of maps and flood effects. A good read.

• The Mississippi has also flooded more recently, in fact it overflowed in April 2001. CNN is always a good place to go for related ARTICLES. TIME magazine has also done a PHOTO ESSAY on the flooding, from April 2001.

• A rather good images was sourced via BLDG BLOG. This is a great place to go for miscellaneous information on eclectic topics related to the landscape. The images shows the various channels occupied by the Mississippi over the last few decades.

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