Flooding in MEDC’s

Flooding in MEDC’s has a different impact to flooding in LEDC’s. A large amount of housing in urban areas of MEDC’s has been built on flood plains. This has obviously led to extensive flooding in many MEDC’s (for example, Mississippi river, USA or River Severn, UK).

The floods are often caused by the amount of tarmac and other impermeable surfaces which have been laid down as a result of urbanisation. This leads to rapid overland flow and rivers reaching their peak discharge rapidly in times of heavy rain and leads to extensive flooding.

Emergency services and warning systems mean that loss of life in MEDCs is often small. Homes and businesses, however, are often damaged and the cost can be great (the Mississippi floods of 1993 caused $10 billion of damage).

Plans to prevent flooding are often only put in after a flood has occurred. However, as MEDC’s are more economically developed, they are able to implement effective strategies to reduce the damage from flooding in the future.

Flooding in LEDC’s

Flooding in LEDC’s has a massive impact on the economy, health system and people. The floods can occur due to monsoon rains, snow melt in spring or just unusually high rainfall (for example, River Ganges, Bangladesh).

Loss of life may be great as emergency services struggle to cope with the vast amount of help that is needed. Communication links are often destroyed and as the quality of housing is often of a poor standard, many homes are completely destroyed leaving people homeless.

Due to the lack of provision for clean up operations, water often remains stagnant which leads to the rapid spread of water-borne diseases, such as cholera and typhoid.

LEDCs may need to seek aid from MEDCs to assist with the damage caused by severe flooding.