LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Floods: Waters
built 640 days ago
The issue of poverty and floods will ... be discussed during the 3rd World Water Forum in Kyoto next March, and much of what you do here over the next two days will be shared there. How do floods affect the poor? How can flood management projects optimize indigenous coping mechanisms while reducing the negative environmental and social effects of flood control structures, such as embankments or dikes? At this workshop you will look at some examples of successful social protection measures to soften the negative impact of unpredicted flooding.
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The worst floods happen where the land is flat and low-lying. Mud, earth, and large objects, like cars, can be carried long distances by flood waters. They rip up anything not firmly anchored to the ground. Then, disease spreads quickly because the flood water is polluted and there is no fresh drinking water.
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The magnitude of floods can be altered if changes are made in a drainage basin. Harvesting timber or changing land use from farmland to housing developments can cause the runoff to increase and cause an increase in the magnitude of flooding. Building dams that store water can reduce the magnitude of floods
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Accurate identification and measurement of high-water marks from floods are very important in the accurate mapping of inundated areas as well as in the analysis of water-surface profiles for indirect discharge measurements. These elevations, in combination with flood-frequency analysis using many years of annual flood maximums, are used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to determine flood-insurance rates.
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Some communities have adapted to cope with small recurrent floods. These are floods that result in slow, predictable rises in water levels, and equally slow recession of waters after the peak flood has passed.
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