Flooding is the covering or submerging of land by water and can affect areas close to a river or the sea. Due to the wide ranging impacts on people, the economy and the environment, it is vital to understand the main causes. Although flooding is a natural phenomenon, is it possible that human actions are now the main cause of this natural hazard?, Flooding has happened since before humans existed and so many people would argue that the causes of flooding are primarily natural. One of the leading causes of flooding is prolonged rain or intense storms. This directly leads to flooding due to the increase in water entering the river basin. This was clearly seen during the 2004 Boscastle floods. There had been days of heavy rain, before 89mm fell during just one hour. As more rain fell, the capacity of the river quickly reached its peak. Furthermore, the intense rain struggled to infiltrate the ground while the previous prolonged rainfall saturated the soil. In both of these instances, surface run off increased leading to more water reaching the river., Furthermore, Boscastle is located at a confluence of three rivers, surrounded by steep slopes. The steep slopes increased the amount and speed of water draining to the rivers, all of which directed the water towards Boscastle. With or without the human settlement, that areas would have experienced the effects of flooding., On the other hand, it can be argued that due to the actions of humans, flooding is not only more severe but now more common. If you examine the Boscastle floods, the urbanization of the local area, particularly near the river banks, created a large amount of impermeable surfaces. It could be argued that this prevented the water to drain away naturally and thus leading to the significant flooding experienced., It should also be noted that the local community had not cleared the drains or dredged the river recently. This lack of river management meant the capacity of the river and drains were smaller and increased the risk of flooding., Overall, it is clear that flooding is a natural hazard that will occur regardless of human actions. However, it is important to realise that human actions can increase this effect. This can be seen by the fact the huge amounts of rain and natural landscape around Boscastle was the leading cause of flooding. Nevertheless, the lack of river management and recent urbanization created a perfect storm..

Causes of flooding. Extended Answer.

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