drought
A relative term denoting a period during which rainfall is either totally absent or substantially lower than usual for the area in question, so that there is a resulting shortage of water for human ...
emergency
In public health, a situation that threatens life, personal, and population health and safety, human settlements, habitat, generally associated with environmental change from equilibrium to an ...
flood damage
The economic loss that is caused by a flood, which includes direct damage due to inundation, erosion, and sediment deposition, as well as emergency costs and business or financial losses.
flood forecast
A prediction of the likely height, timing, and duration of a flood, particularly the peak discharge at a specified point on a stream, based on information about precipitation and/or snowmelt and the ...
flood frequency
The probability (likelihood) that a flood of a certain size will occur in a given year in a particular river or part of a river. See also recurrence interval.
flood peak
The highest stage (largest discharge) reached during a particular flood at a given point on a river. Also known as peak discharge.
flood stage
The water level (stage) in a river or stream beyond which the flow starts to flood adjacent land. See also bankfull.
floodplain management
A coordinated approach to the reduction of flood damage that usually includes emergency and contingency plans, flood control works, and regulations to control current and future development in the ...
high tide
High water. The highest level to which the tide rises within the daily tidal cycle. Contrast low tide.
ice jam
A build‐up of floating ice that blocks a narrow river channel, and can cause local flooding during a thaw in late winter or early spring.
natural Hazards
A process or event in the physical environment that is not caused by humans, is usually not entirely predictable, but can injure or kill people and damage property. Examples include natural processes ...
natural-technological disaster
A natural disaster that creates a technological emergency, such as an urban fire that results from seismic motion, or a chemical spill that result from flooding. See also disaster, technological ...
neptunism
A theory of the formation of the Earth, popular at the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, and associated with Werner. Werner taught that the oldest, primitive rocks, including ...
overbank deposit
A floodplain sediment that lies beyond the limits of the river channel and was left by floodwaters that had overflowed the river banks.
partial duration series
Flow records that are used in flood frequency analysis, which include all peak flows with a discharge greater than a chosen threshold (such as bankfull discharge). Contrast annual maximum series.
recurrence interval
(RI)The average period of time, usually measured in years, between two successive floods of a given size (discharge) at a particular location within a river system, as calculated by flood frequency ...
regulated river
A river in which the natural processes and/or the river channel itself have been deliberately altered for management purposes, such as the construction of a large dam for water supply, to generate ...
river diversion scheme
An engineering scheme that is designed to redirect flood water on a floodplain and make it flow away from built‐up areas, normally by constructing artificial channels.
