What are the causes and effects of flooding?
Flooding means that there is too much water, so that it will end up in places where we do not want it to be, such as rural areas. Natural flooding by streams is the most common type of flooding and is primarily caused by heavy rainfall or rapid melting of snow. It causes water in the stream to overflow its normal channel and to cover the neighbouring area. Areas that are expected to flood once in a while are called flood planes. People have settled on flood planes since the beginning of agriculture, because the soil is fertile and the water is readily available for watering of crops. Communities can use the water for transport and flood planes are suitable for buildings, highways and railroads, because they are flat. People may decide that these benefits outweigh the risk of living on a flood plane. We surround the flood planes with safety measures such as dikes, but we have seen in the past that these measures are not always satisfactory. On marine coasts flooding most often results f
