Aftermath Of Flood Research Articles

Impact of subsurface water on structural performance of inundated flexible pavements

ABSTRACTThe assessment of the structural performance of inundated pavements is crucial to reduce the induced damage in the aftermath of flooding. The objective of this study is to present a simplified approach to investigate the impact of different subsurface water levels on the performance of pavement structures. The flooded conditions and subsequent water recession were simulated by slowly lowering the subsurface water from the pavement surface down in depth. A hydrostatic water pressure distribution was assigned above and below the water level for different cross sections with different subgrade types. Layer Elastic Analysis was performed to predict the surface deflection, stresses and strains at the bottom of asphalt layer and at the top of subgrade layer to evaluate the impact of saturated and unsaturated pavements. Finally, the influence depth for subsurface water level at which the road can withstand traffic with zero to minimum deterioration was discussed given the pavement structure and soil type. The results showed that the pavement structural capacity decreases significantly when the base and subgrade layers are fully saturated. The pavement starts to regain its strength once the subsurface water level dropped below the base course layer.

Wellbeing in the aftermath of floods

The interactions between flood events, their aftermath, and recovery leading to health and wellbeing outcomes for individuals are complex, and the pathways and mechanisms through which wellbeing is affected are often hidden and remain under-researched. This study analyses the diverse processes that explain changes in wellbeing for those experiencing flooding. It identifies key pathways to wellbeing outcomes that concern perceptions of lack of agency, dislocation from home, and disrupted futures inducing negative impacts, with offsetting positive effects through community networks and interactions. The mixed method study is based on data from repeated qualitative semi-structured interviews (n=60) and a structured survey (n=1000) with individuals that experienced flooding directly during winter 2013/14 in two UK regions. The results show for the first time the diversity and intersection of pathways to wellbeing outcomes in the aftermath of floods. The findings suggest that enhanced public health planning and interventions could focus on the precise practices and mechanisms that intersect to produce anxiety, stress, and their amelioration at individual and community levels.

Looking upstream: enhancers of child nutritional status in post-flood rural settings.

Background. Child undernutrition and flooding are highly prevalent public health issues in many developing countries, yet we have little understanding of preventive strategies for effective coping in these circumstances. Education has been recently highlighted as key to reduce the societal impacts of extreme weather events under climate change, but there is a lack of studies assessing to what extent parental education may prevent post-flood child undernutrition.Methods and Materials. One year after large floods in 2008, we conducted a two-stage cluster population-based survey of 6–59 months children inhabiting flooded and non-flooded communities of Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha (India), and collected anthropometric measurements on children along with child, parental and household level variables through face-to-face interviews. Using multivariate logistic regression models, we examined separately the effect of maternal and paternal education and other risk factors (mainly income, socio-demographic, and child and mother variables) on stunting and wasting in children from households inhabiting recurrently flooded communities (2006 and 2008; n = 299). As a comparison, separate analyses on children in non-flooded communities were carried out (n = 385). All analyses were adjusted by income as additional robustness check.Results. Overall, fathers with at least completed middle education (up to 14 years of age and compulsory in India) had an advantage in protecting their children from child wasting and stunting. For child stunting, the clearest result was a 100–200% lower prevalence associated with at least paternal secondary schooling (compared to no schooling) in flooded-areas. Again, only in flooded communities, an increase in per capita annual household income of 1,000 rupees was associated to a 4.7–4.9% lower prevalence of child stunting. For child wasting in flooded areas, delayed motherhood was associated to better nutritional outcomes (3.4% lower prevalence per year). In flooded communities, households dedicated to activities other than agriculture, a 50–51% lower prevalence of child wasting was estimated, suggesting farmers and fishermen as the most vulnerable livelihoods under flooding. In flooded areas, lower rank castes were at higher odds of both child wasting and stunting.Conclusions. In the short-term, protracted nutritional response in the aftermath of floods should be urgently implemented and target agricultural livelihoods and low-rank castes. Education promotion and schooling up to 14 years should have positive impacts on improving children nutritional health in the long run, especially under flooding. Policies effectively helping sustainable livelihood economic development and delayed motherhood are also recommended.

Flood-Exposure is Associated with Higher Prevalence of Child Undernutrition in Rural Eastern India.

Background: Child undernutrition and flooding are highly prevalent public health issues in Asia, yet epidemiological studies investigating this association are lacking. Methods: To investigate to what extent floods exacerbate poor nutritional status in children and identify most vulnerable groups, we conducted a population-based survey of children aged 6–59 months inhabiting flooded and non-flooded communities of the Jagatsinghpur district, Odisha (India), one year after large floods in 2008. Anthropometric measurements on 879 children and child, parental and household level variables were collected through face-to-face interviews in September 2009. The association between flooding and the prevalence of wasting, stunting and underweight was examined using weighted multivariate logistic regression for children inhabiting communities exposed solely to floods in 2008 and those communities repeatedly flooded (2006 and 2008) controlling for parental education and other relevant variables. We examined the influence of age on this association. Propensity score matching was conducted to test the robustness of our findings. Results: The prevalence of wasting among children flooded in 2006 and 2008 was 51.6%, 41.4% in those flooded only in 2008, and 21.2% in children inhabiting non-flooded communities. Adjusting by confounders, the increased prevalence relative to non-flooded children in the exposed groups were 2.30 (adjusted prevalence ratio (aPR); 95% CI: 1.86, 2.85) and 1.94 (95% CI: 1.43, 2.63), respectively. Among repeatedly flooded communities, cases of severe wasting in children were 3.37 times more prevalent than for children inhabiting in those non-flooded (95% CI: 2.34, 4.86) and nearly twice more prevalent relative to those flooded only once. Those children younger than one year during previous floods in 2006 showed the largest difference in prevalence of wasting compared to their non-flooded counterparts (aPR: 4.01; 95% CI: 1.51, 10.63). Results were robust to alternative adjusted models and in propensity score matching analyses. For similar analyses, no significant associations were found for child stunting, and more moderate effects were observed in the case of child underweight. Conclusions: Particularly in low-resource or subsistence-farming rural settings, long-lasting nutritional response in the aftermath of floods should be seriously considered to counteract the long-term nutritional effects on children, particularly infants, and include their mothers on whom they are dependent. The systematic monitoring of nutritional status in these groups might help to tailor efficient responses in each particular context.

The RISPOSTA procedure for the collection, storage and analysis of high quality, consistent and reliable damage data in the aftermath of floods

AbstractDespite the perceived abundance of information collected after a disaster, available data furnish a narrow picture of flood impacts, or they are difficult to compare so as to produce an integrated interpretation of flood events. This is due to the diversity of the purposes for which data are collected and the variety of stakeholders involved in data collection and management. The RISPOSTA procedure addresses the need for standardised ways to collect flood damage data and to create consistent and reliable flood databases that meet the objectives of risk mitigation. In this regard, the procedure satisfies several requirements of loss data: (1) the data should refer to the different exposed sectors so as to supply a comprehensive view of flood impacts; (2) they should be collected at the finest scale so that the proper scale of analysis can be chosen by subsequent data aggregation; (3) they should be linked to the physical event as well as to the features of the different exposed elements so as to supply information on both flood impacts and their explicative variables; and (4) they should be collected at different times according to the unfolding of the event in order to describe the entire range of possible damage.

Infectious Diseases in the Aftermath of Floods in Asia : A Literature Review

Purpose: This study provides an insight, with a literature review, into infectious diseases which could break out after floods. Methods: The study systematically reviewed literature. A total of 209 articles emerged with search words and conditions. After applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria, nine studies finally remained for review. Results: Seven Asian countries reported twelve flooding cases during the given time frame. The most frequently hit area was Dhaka in Bangladesh. The main cause of flood was heavy rainfall between July and September. Diarrhea was the most common infectious disease after the incidents, followed by Leptospirosis and cellulitis. Vibrio cholerae was the major pathogen causing diarrhea. Conclusion: Types of infectious disease in the aftermath of natural disasters may be different upon types of disasters and regional characteristics. Therefore, healthcare professionals need to understand well endemic diseases and the dominant types of disaster in the area that they serve in order to effectively respond to disasters.

Ex post damage assessment: an Italian experience

Abstract. In recent years, awareness of a need for more effective disaster data collection, storage, and sharing of analyses has developed in many parts of the world. In line with this advance, Italian local authorities have expressed the need for enhanced methods and procedures for post-event damage assessment in order to obtain data that can serve numerous purposes: to create a reliable and consistent database on the basis of which damage models can be defined or validated; and to supply a comprehensive scenario of flooding impacts according to which priorities can be identified during the emergency and recovery phase, and the compensation due to citizens from insurers or local authorities can be established. This paper studies this context, and describes ongoing activities in the Umbria and Sicily regions of Italy intended to identifying new tools and procedures for flood damage data surveys and storage in the aftermath of floods. In the first part of the paper, the current procedures for data gathering in Italy are analysed. The analysis shows that the available knowledge does not enable the definition or validation of damage curves, as information is poor, fragmented, and inconsistent. A new procedure for data collection and storage is therefore proposed. The entire analysis was carried out at a local level for the residential and commercial sectors only. The objective of the next steps for the research in the short term will be (i) to extend the procedure to other types of damage, and (ii) to make the procedure operational with the Italian Civil Protection system. The long-term aim is to develop specific depth–damage curves for Italian contexts.

Assessment of the Bacterial Contamination and Remediation Efficacy After Flooding Using Fluorometric Detection

Abstract In the aftermath of flooding, rapid response assessment and cleanup is critical to recovery. In this study, the level of contamination of bacteria on surfaces in flooded houses was estimated and compared to the level found on surfaces in non-flooded houses with a rapid field test based on hydrolase enzyme activity present in bacteria and by measuring endotoxin. Sampling was performed by swabbing a 9 cm2 area using sterile cotton swabs wetted with a bacteriostatic buffer. A correlation between endotoxin levels and levels of hydrolase activity was seen (R2 = 0.6469, P < 0.0001). The median value and the variance ofthe result distribution were higher in flooded buildings as compared to non-flooded buildings. In the non-flooded buildings, surfaces were divided into visually clean and visually dirty. As expected the level of bacteria was higher on the visually dirty surfaces, and overall the hydrolase activity correlated well with the visual inspection. Using the results from the visually clean surfaces in the reference buildings as the criteria for clean, four methods of cleaning were tested for their ability to reach these criteria.

Geographic Information System Framework for Stormwater Drainage Asset Management

Stormwater drainage systems (open channels, culverts, conduits, pump stations, etc.) are managed by municipalities, utilities, and departments of transportation (DOTs) to collect rainfall, control storm peak flow, and reduce the risk of flooding during extreme storm events. Effective management of drainage systems is especially critical in the era of climate change and rapid urbanization, when more frequent and more intense than normal floods are expected to occur. Asset management offers an alternative to the crisis management approach to dealing with drainage infrastructure failures in the aftermath of floods. This paper addresses key data issues in stormwater drainage asset management, including defining inventory data requirements, developing practical condition assessment methods that consider both hydraulic capacity and physical conditions of drainage assets, and integrating inventory and condition data and documents in a geographic information system (GIS) framework. The developed GIS framework was applied to the stormwater drainage system in El Paso, Texas. In the short term, this framework can help municipalities, utilities, and DOTs to focus on data that are sufficiently detailed to be useful for asset management but not so demanding of time and resources as to be unaffordable to collect and maintain. The long-term benefits, yet to be proved through testing and implementation, are more cost-effective strategies for preserving and improving drainage systems and for reducing the risk of costly flooding.

Aftermath of Flood

Aftermath of Flood