Flooding notes

Today we are finishing our notes on flooding. Then we will be talking about what Manitoba government is doing to prevent flooding.

Discharge
The volume of the water that flows past a particular point during a set amount of time.
How much water is moving compared to regular times.

Sea level
The height of the water at a particular point compared to the standard sea level.
How high/deep the water is compared to regular times.

Tracking the flood
Hydrograph is a graph used to show changes in a river's discharge over time.
Can help predict how future floods will behave(amount of water,length,etc.)
The area downstream will flood for longer period of time.
It takes longer for all of the water to flow past the end point
   -small stream/river are affected faster then larger bodies of water
   - changes are noticeably faster since they are small to begin with

Flod notes

Drainage basins

• the area where all the precipitation accumulates is called a drainage basin

• the boundary in between basins is called a drainage divide

• rain falling on one side of the divide goes into one basin, where the rain falling on the opposite side goes into a different basin

• anytime there is t much precipitation in one drainage basin then there well be a flood

• can result from: melting snow, hail, rain water, ice storm or any other combination  

Tracking the Flood

• organisations track early flooding to help plan

• what dams or flood ways need to be built

• what areas are not good for building

• what areas need food relief credits ($)

class of floods

pros and cons of flooding
pros                                                            cons
-water for people who need it                    -people can die
-give soil different nutrients                         -loss of land
-more fish                                                   -loss of crops
-more beavers                                             -trees can die
-                                                                  -take nutrients out of soil
-                                                                  -loss of houses

I LOVE CHICKEN

drainage basins
-land is not flat there is always some chang in the land
  -how high or low the land is.
precipitation will flow from highest elevation to the lowest elevation