Flood Coverage Research Articles

Visual representation of gender in flood coverage of Pakistani print media

This paper studies gender representation in the visual coverage of the 2010 floods in Pakistan. The data were collected from flood visuals published in the most circulated mainstream English newspapers in Pakistan, Dawn and The News. This study analyses how gender has been framed in the flood visuals. It is argued that visual representation of gender reinforces the gender stereotypes and cultural norms of Pakistani society. The gender-oriented flood coverage in both newspapers frequently seemed to take a reductionist approach while confining the representation of women to gender, and gender-specific roles. Though the gender-sensitive coverage displayed has been typical, showing women as helpless victims of flood, it has aroused sentiments of sympathy among readers and donors, inspiring them to give immediate moral and material help to the affected people. This agenda set by media might be to exploit the politics of sympathy but it has the effect of endorsing gender stereotypes.

Simulating storm flooding maps over HafenCity under present and sea level rise scenarios

AbstractGlobal climate models have predicted a mean sea level rise between 0.18 m and 0.59 m by the end of the 21st century with high regional variability. The projected sea level rise due to global warming would inundate low‐lying areas. A high‐resolution unstructured‐grid Finite‐Volume Coastal and Ocean Model is applied to perform a simulation and prediction of the flooding process because of storm impacts around HafenCity under today's conditions and under scenarios of future sea level rise. The results show significant flooding under strong storm processes, such as the winter storm ‘Anatol’ in 1999. The flood coverage will be significantly increased under short‐, middle‐ and long‐term sea level rise scenarios. The peak flood levels will rise according to the respective sea level rise while the flood area will increase by 18% (2025), 34% (2055) and 54% (2085). The maximum flood height and area for the three sea level rise scenarios will reach ∼6.8 m and ∼4.1 × 105 m2, respectively. The most impacted area will be the region between the Baakenhafen (zone 12) and the Oberhafen/Oberhafenkanal. In the long‐term scenario (2085), flooding near the Magdeburger Hafen and Norderelbe will also increase. Coastal defence measures should be taken to ensure flood protection around HafenCity.