Great Flood Research Articles

The Great Flood of the Eleventh Century and the Migration of the Aztec-Mexica and the Anahuac Peoples

Abstract This work relies on the proposal that Aztlan was on the same islets of Texcoco Lake where Mexica founded Mexico-Tenochtitlan, that Teocolhuacan was where Iztapalapa town is today and that the Aztec-Mexica migration happened in the context of the great flood of the eleventh century. Based on human geography, this article aims to take a step forward and test this proposal by developing the migration routes that the Aztec-Mexica and the eight peoples that walked with them, according to the Tira de la peregrinación, might have followed. From the analysis carried out, this essay proposes that these peoples walked south and split themselves in the valleys of Cuauhtla or Cuernavaca. From there, this work suggests migration routes for these eight peoples and argues that most of them came back to the Anahuac Valley because of the high political value of this territory. Finally, this article locates the migrations of the Toltec, Colhua, Chichimeca, Acolhua, and Otomi in the context of the flood and provides a general panorama of the migratory process that this natural catastrophe could have caused. This examination reinforces the claim that the Aztec-Mexica were in the Anahuac Valley in Toltec times.

1930년대 중후반 조선총독부의 水防團 설치와 수해 ‘警戒防禦’ 활동

This paper investigates the defense against floods organization that was installed after the great flood damage of 1934 and had been active since. Called following the flood damage of 1934, the temporary investigation committee for flood control resolved to establish a defense against floods organization in each province. They first compared Japan’s irrigation association act with Joseon’s rules for the defense against floods organization.
 They also analyzed the table of organization in the defense against floods organization. The defense against floods committee was called mainly by the high-ranking officials of each province for every rainy season and served as a control tower to supervise the overall reactions to flood damage. The defense against floods organization worked as an action member to practice its measures.
 The defense against floods organization carried out the following activities: first, they practiced technologically. Their emergency method of construction against floods was an emergency measure for such accidents as the breaking and leakage of an embankment; secondly, they assisted police activities, restricting words and actions regarding flood damage to stabilize the public sentiment; and finally, they served at local events, advertising the legitimacy of power. After the Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, they collaborated with Japan for its war efforts like other organizations supportive of the war.
 The study also examined the significance and limitations of the defense against floods organization through its activities. Its biggest issue derived from its financial crunch as a local organization. There was no proper anti-erosion work, and meteorological observation facilities were in shortage. These factors made the organization’s activities difficult, but it was opposite to the overall positive tone of media reports. The activities of the organization were integrated into the guard defense organization in 1939, which marked the end of the organization.

Can atmospheric reanalysis datasets reproduce flood inundation at regional scales? A systematic analysis with ERA5 over Mahanadi River Basin, India.

The prime challenges limiting efficient flood management, especially over large regions, are concurrently related to limited hydro-meteorological observations and exorbitant economics with computational modeling. Reanalysis datasets are a valuable alternative, as they furnish relevant variables at high spatiotemporal resolutions. In recent times, ERA5 has gained significant recognition for its applications in hydrological modeling; however, its efficacy at the inundation scale needs to be understood. The advent of "global flood models" has ensured flood inundation and hazard modeling over large regions, otherwise obscure with regional models. For the first time, the present study explores the fidelity of ERA5 reanalysis at the inundation scale over the Mahanadi River basin, a severely flood-prone region in India. The biases in the discharges within ERA5 are ascertained by comparing them with station-level data at the nascent and extreme levels (i.e., 95th and 99th percentiles). Later, ERA5 is fed to LISFLOOD-FP, an acclaimed global flood model, to reenact the 2006, 2008, 2011, and 2014 flood events. Hit rates exceeding 0.8 compared to MODIS satellite imageries affirm the suitability of ERA5 in accurately capturing flood inundation. Distributed design discharges for 50yr and 100yr are derived using a set of extreme value distributions and fed to LISFLOOD-FP to derive design flood inundation and hazards in terms of both "depth" and "product of depth and velocity" of flood waters. Results derived from the study provide vital lessons for efficient land-use planning and adaptation strategies linked to flood protection and resilience.

Jianghan plain, the locale of China’s Great Flood four thousand years ago

The Yellow River Plain (YRP), being regarded as the cradle of Chinese civilization, is traditionally thought to be the locale of the Great Flood, a hazardous flood (or floods) tamed by Yu who started China’s first “dynasty”, Xia, in ~ 2000 BC. However, by integrating published archaeological data, we propose that the Great Flood in fact impacted the Jianghan Plain (JHP) along the middle course of the Yangtze River. The arguments include: (1) around the era of the Great Flood, the most civilized and populated society in East Asia, named the Jianghan society, was located around the JHP (at that time, the habitation on the YRP remained limited); (2) the Jianghan society lived on river resources (shipping and rice growing) and was thus subject to flood risks (but not for the people inhabiting the YRP); (3) the people in the Jianghan society were experienced in dredging moats/ditches for shipping and irrigation; (4) unlike the floods on the YRP that were characterized by dynamic sedimentation and channel avulsion, those on the JHP typically occurred with slow-moving water manageable to ancient people; (5) the JHP has been associated with lake/wetland systems serving as detention basins during floods. Here, the recorded method for controlling the Great Flood, dredging channels to divert flood water to a “sea”, was feasible. Known speleothem paleo-rainfall data from multiple sites show that the climate of the JHP had been wet since the middle Holocene (earlier than the era of the Great Flood) and significantly turned dry after ~ 1850 BC (~ 150 years later than the Great Flood). Thus, the uniqueness of the Great Flood was likely to reflect an increase in land use on the JHP with the expansion of the Jianghan society, and the success in taming this flood was mainly due to the efforts of the society, not by luck.

The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation

The Origin of Humanity and Evolution: Science and Scripture in Conversation

DEVELOPMENT OF FLOOD RISK REDUCTION INVESTMENT STRATEGIES THROUGH GLOBAL FLOOD RISK TOOL AND APPLICATION OF ADAPTATION PATHWAYS

Flooding is an issue of growing concern worldwide. Cities around the world are threatened by sea level rise, land subsidence as well as extreme river discharges and intensified precipitation during short periods of time. The interaction of these phenomena potentially causes severe flood problems. In addition, cities are often densely populated centres with high socio-economic development and sophisticated networks of water-related infrastructure. Hence, the impact and damage of flooding can be significant and very costly. In addition to climate change and socio-economic growth, many cities are sinking as a result of land subsidence. In response to these issues, Royal HaskoningDHV has been developing the Global Flood Risk Tool (GFRT). The GRFT is Royal HaskoningDHV’s cloud-based platform that delivers accurate and comprehensible flood risk analysis and recommends strategic investment proposals to reduce risk on losing lives and economic damages to the society, infrastructure, industries and businesses.

BIM-based constructability-aware precast building optimization using optimality criteria and combined non-dominated sorting genetic II and great deluge algorithm (NSGA-II-GD)

The popularity of precast concrete in construction is rising due to its capacity for improving building efficiency and quality in comparison to cast-in-situ concrete. While researchers have focused on enhancing constructability factors like logistics and sequencing, the need for developing standardization in this area remains evident. This paper describes a framework for studying the relationship between construction cost and standardization by optimizing precast component dimensions and rebar designs. The framework involves using Building Information Modeling techniques to extract semantic information from architectural plans, followed by a gradient-based Optimality Criteria method to optimize the sizing variables of precast components. Finally, a hybrid approach called NSGA-II-GD, which combines the Non-dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II and Great Deluge Algorithm, is used to optimize the rebar layout design of each precast component. The Results demonstrate that an optimal point exists between construction cost and standardization, particularly for components subjected to similar stresses. Additionally, the NSGA-II-GD algorithm improves the searching efficiency in terms of convergence, computational time, and searching space.

A synergistic approach towards understanding flood risks over coastal multi-hazard environments: Appraisal of bivariate flood risk mapping through flood hazard, and socio-economic-cum-physical vulnerability dimensions

The dynamics of flood risk over Coastal Multi-hazard Catchments (CMC) exhibit bizarre characteristics. In these regions, flood hazards are governed by a complex interaction of multiple flood-inducing sources; varying in magnitudes, origin, and direction of propagation. Our conventional understanding of vulnerability may be obscure within these catchments. This can be attributable to the heterogeneous nature of various physical and socio-economic entities. The study proposes a comprehensive framework to quantify bivariate flood risks over a severely flood-prone region in India. The study considers flood hazards, along with vulnerabilities transpiring from (a) physical, (b) socio-economic, and (c) composite (combination of both) groups of indicators. To overcome data scarcity prevalent in CMCs, CHIRPS v2.0, a high-resolution Satellite Precipitation Product, along with other ancillary datasets, are forced to 1D2D coupled MIKE+ hydrodynamic model to simulate flood hazards. A set of 24 indicators are considered within the Shannon Entropy-cum-TOPSIS framework to derive three types of vulnerability. The marginal and compound contributions of hazard and each vulnerability type are represented through a novel concept of bivariate flood risk classifier at the village scale. We notice high and very-high flood hazards over the coastline and floodplains. An equitable influence of socio-economic vulnerability and hazards is reflected, as they cover 41 % of villages together under varied degrees of flood risks. The impacts of hazards are underscored in the presence of physical vulnerability, as the latter contributes to risks in about 72 % of villages. Composite vulnerability prevails its impact over 53 % of villages, dominating its influence on flood risks over hazards. The study delivers vital information to the global flood management community on the prudent selection of indicators, as their influence is markedly noticed on the overall flood risks. The diversified characteristics of flood risk inspire a rationalized implementation of structural and non-structural options in resource-constrained conditions.

Model Driven Approach for Efficient Flood Disaster Management with Meta Model Support

Society and the environment are severely impacted by catastrophic events, specifically floods. Inadequate emergency preparedness and response are frequently the result of the absence of a comprehensive plan for flood management. This article proposes a novel flood disaster management (FDM) system using the full lifecycle disaster event model (FLCNDEM), an abstract model based on the function super object. The proposed FDM system integrates data from existing flood protocols, languages, and patterns and analyzes viewing requests at various phases of an event to enhance preparedness and response. The construction of a task library and knowledge base to initialize FLCNDEM results in FLCDEM flooding response. The proposed FDM system improves the emergency response by offering a comprehensive framework for flood management, including pre-disaster planning, real-time monitoring, and post-disaster evaluation. The proposed system can be modified to accommodate various flood scenarios and enhance global flood management.

The Global Drivers of Chronic Coastal Flood Hazards Under Sea‐Level Rise

AbstractWe present the first global estimates of annual average exceedances of contemporary minor, moderate, and major flood levels under sea‐level rise (SLR). Applying established methods, we show that minor flooding will occur most days worldwide under 0.7 m global SLR. Moderate flooding occurs at the same frequency under 1.0 m SLR. Local and regional differences in flood threshold elevations, tidal ranges, and non‐tidal variability lead to differences in the SLR required for this chronic flooding to emerge. Lower flood thresholds, smaller tidal ranges, and larger extreme skew surges mean chronic flooding can emerge with less SLR. We discuss several implications of these findings for coastal flood hazard assessments. First, tide‐driven water level variability dominates weather‐driven water level variability when determining locations' propensities for frequent and chronic flooding under SLR. Second, centimeter‐accurate flood threshold information is necessary to accurately estimate present and future flood hazards. Third, locations with the most frequent floods at present may not be those that have the most frequent floods under SLR. We develop the Rapid Assessment Framework for Frequent Flood Transitions under SLR (RAFFFTS) to apply these findings to locations not previously considered in global coastal flood hazard studies. RAFFFTS can robustly identify potential future tidal flooding hotspots using only 1‐year observational records. We anticipate RAFFFTS will be a valuable tool for identifying locations at risk of chronic flooding under SLR, complementing existing tools for identifying changes in less frequent episodic floods.

Responsible Public Theology on Climate Change Devastations: Disastrous flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Climate change is devastating human communities, but it is more devastating to the poor and powerless, especially in the absence of accountable political leadership. This was evident in the recent climate disaster that struck South Africa in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where the deadliest storm in April 2022 killed about 489 people and devastated many more. This paints a frightening picture of the impending climate apocalypse not only in South Africa but in the global world. In the face of mounting evidence that the threat of climate change is indeed existential, this paper represents a tacit theological obligation to warn nations or sensitize governments to the impending climate catastrophe. Responsible public theology as per this paper’s version calls for pragmatic government policies and a renewed church mission for human security in the face of the looming climate crisis. Although unrelated to the phenomenon of climate change, the Genesis flood narrative is used by analogy to describe the church's mission in the face of the climate crisis encompassing floods. A particular focus is the impact of the environmental and climate change crisis on the impoverished masses living in low-lying risk areas, as was the case with KZN. Given that there seems to be little theological reflection or intensity on this question, this paper represents a potential area for further research that will foster theologically informed dialogue on impacts of climate change.

Selected global flood preparation and response lessons: implications for more resilient Chinese Cities

Selected global flood preparation and response lessons: implications for more resilient Chinese Cities

Human displacements, fatalities, and economic damages linked to remotely observed floods

We present a new open source dataset FLODIS that links estimates of flood-induced human displacements, fatalities, and economic damages to flooded areas observed through remote sensing. The dataset connects displacement data from the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC), as well as data on fatalities and damages from the Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT), with the Global Flood Database (GFD), a satellite-based inventory of historic flood footprints. It thereby provides a spatially explicit estimate of the flood hazard underlying each individual disaster event. FLODIS contains two datasets with event-specific information for 335 human displacement events and 695 mortality/damage events that occurred around the world between 2000 and 2018. Additionally, we provide estimates of affected population, GDP, and critical infrastructure, as well as socio-economic indicators; and we provide geocoding for displacement events ascribed to other types of disasters, such as tropical cyclones, so that they may be linked to corresponding hazard estimates in future work. FLODIS facilitates integrated flood risk analysis, allowing, for example, for detailed assessments of local flood-damage and displacement vulnerability.

The Literary Structure of the Flood Account in the Animal Apocalypse

This article discusses the literary structure of the flood account (1 En. 89:1b–9) in the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85–90). Since the Qumran Aramaic text of the story (4Q206 frags. 8 I and 9) has preserved a shorter text than that found in the ancient Ethiopic version, the study of the literary additions found therein is also undertaken. Although the Aramaic text of the flood account is not free from some redactional elaborations of the literary structure of the story, the literary additions in the Ethiopic version expand the shorter structure, especially in the first part of the account (strophes 2–4). The insertion of new cosmic elements into the story (heavenly roof and earthly enclosure) creates a well-circumscribed space where the punishment of humanity, sons of the Watchers and animals by the waters of the flood takes place (strophe 4). Thus, the Ethiopic longer recension of the flood account is far more distant from the shorter text of 4Q206. The last part of this study takes a closer look at the literary context of the flood story that closes the first part of the Animal Apocalypse (1 En. 85:3b–89:9) and preannounces its second section (1 En. 89:10–90:19) marred by the shedding of blood and violence between the nations and Israel.

The Timing of Global Floods and Its Association With Climate and Topography

AbstractUntil recently, the development of a global geography of floods was challenged by the fragmentation and heterogeneity of in situ data and the high costs of processing large amounts of remote sensing data. Such geography would facilitate the exploration of large‐scale drivers of flood extent and timing including wide latitudinal, climate, and topographic effects. Here we used a monthly data set spanning 30 years (Global Surface Water) to develop a worldwide geographical characterization of slow floods (1‐degree grid), weighting the relative contribution of seasonal, interannual, and long‐term fluctuations on overall variability, and quantified precipitation‐flooding delays where seasonality dominated. We explored the dominance of different flooding timings across five main Köppen‐Geiger climates and seven topography classes derived from modeled water table depths (i.e., hydro‐topography) to contribute top‐down insight about the most salient, cross‐regional flooding patterns and their likely large‐scale drivers. Our results showed that, globally, the mean extent of floods averaged 0.48% of the global land area, predominantly associated with hydro‐topography (>2× more extensive in flatter landscapes). Climate drove flood timings, with predictable, seasonally dominated fluctuations in cold regions, interannual, and mixed patterns in temperate climates, and more irregular (higher variability) and unpredictable (less seasonal) patterns in arid regions. Net gains of flooded area dominated temporal variability in 9% of the cells including boreal clusters likely affected by warming trends. We propose that this new geographical perspective of floods can aid different avenues of hydrological research in the upscaling and extrapolation of field studies and the parsimonious representation of floods in hydroclimatic models.

The Imagined City: The Great Flood of 1997 as a Foundation Story of Wrocław

Wrocław started its existence on the ruins of German Breslau, several dozen years ago, as a result of the Potsdam Conference. The article is a voice in the discussion about the situation of the city, which, deprived of the possibility to draw on its foreign cultural heritage (the existence of which was ignored in official studies), still struggles with the problem of defining its identity. I present this issue based on actions taken by elites since Wrocław’s establishment as a Polish city. These elites have been creating successive narrative “identity projects” for Wrocław’s citizens. The main thread of my analysis is the city’s foundation story, built in relation to the flood that Wrocław experienced in 1997. According to this story, the fight against the water flooding the city became a watershed moment in the city’s history; it was a shock, thanks to which the citizens of Wrocław finally became conscious citizens, felt an emotional bond with their city, and took responsibility for the testimonies of its pre-war, non-Polish past. All this happened several decades after creating Wrocław in 1945 and promoting, for decades, its unquestionable Polishness. I confront this foundation story with the image of this flood that emerges from the statements of ordinary residents of the city. The flood of 1997, as seen by ordinary citizens of Wrocław, is built from memories of the mundane but acute impediments of everyday life, neighbourly support, and post-flood waste.

서울 암사동 유적의 세계유산적 가치 검토

The Amsadong Site, which were discovered as the Great Flood in 1925, is a representative Neolithic site on the Korean Peninsula, and is already designated and protected as a nationallydesignated cultural heritage due to their importance and significance. Recently, the value of the Amsadong site has been newly recognized and used as a socio-cultural resource, and preparations for the nomination of World Heritage based on the value and significance of the site.
 According to research on the Amsadong site, it would be the earliest Neolithic site in the Midwest of the Korean Peninsula, and is a representative site of the Korean Peninsula that shows Neolithic culture that emerged in the process of adapting to a new climate in Holocene. In particular, the pottery culture, which is represented by comb-patterned pottery excavated from the Amsadong Site, is a archaeological evidence that proves the universality of East Asian earthenware culture that changes into a new decoration technique and the process of differentially occurring, changing, developing, and spreading of comb-patterned pottery culture in the Korean Peninsula. In the early study of comb-pattern pottery culture, there was also a study of the diffusionism with Eurasian earthenware culture, but this is time to be reviewed through expanded research through multi-layered space setting including the Korean Peninsula and Northeast Asia.
 Comparing the value of Amsadong Site with criteria i)-vi), the nomination criteria of iii) and iv) can be met in consideration of differentiated pottery culture, new substance for adaptation to the changing environment, and the formation of settlement villages. However, in order to strategically promote the nomination as a World Heritage Site, it will be necessary to review the development of Neolithic pottires and comb-pattern pottery culture based on a wider space range, including the Korean Peninsula. In particular, for the serial nomination of World Heritage, it is necessary to review the outstanding and universal value through a review of Neolithic sites in the Midwest of the Korean Peninsula.
 The nomination of World Heritage is an effective way to protect and promote the value of the value of Amsadong Site, and we look forward to continuous efforts for World Heritage sites.

The Operation Method of Disaster Management Funds and Korean Migration Policies by Imperial Japan in the First Half of the 1930s - Focusing on the Response to the Great Flood in the Nakdonggang River Basin in 1934 -

The Operation Method of Disaster Management Funds and Korean Migration Policies by Imperial Japan in the First Half of the 1930s - Focusing on the Response to the Great Flood in the Nakdonggang River Basin in 1934 -

The Water Myth in Cinema

This study aims to explore the portrayal of the Fountain of Youth and the myth of the Flood in movies. Firstly, the meaning of the water myth is explained. Then, the focus shifts to how the myth of the Fountain of Youth and the Flood are depicted in different mythologies. The study utilizes qualitative method and thematic content analysis, selecting six films through purposive sampling. The analysis incorporates Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth theory and Klaus Koch’s work on the eight features of the apocalypse. The study reveals how these myths are reproduced through sub-themes identified within the main themes of the Fountain of Youth and the Flood. The results indicate that films present the myth of the Fountain of Youth in various forms. Heroes have different motivations for seeking the Fountain of Youth and encounter various obstacles. Characters who reach the Fountain of Youth undergo significant positive transformations. In flood narratives depicted in movies, the cause of the flood and the awareness of it differ from film to film. Furthermore, other movie findings illustrate who boarded the ship or vehicle to escape the flood and who faced punishment.

Rhine flood stories: Spatio‐temporal analysis of historic and projected flood genesis in the Rhine River basin

AbstractThe genesis of floods in large river basins often is complex. Streamflow originating from precipitation and snowmelt and different tributaries can superimpose and cause high water levels, threatening cities and communities along the riverbanks. For better understanding the mechanisms (origin and composition) of flood events in large and complex basins, we capture and share the story behind major historic and projected streamflow peaks in the Rhine River basin. Our analysis is based on hydrological simulations with the mesoscale Hydrological Model forced with both meteorological observations and an ensemble of climate projections. The spatio‐temporal analysis of the flood events includes the assessment and mapping of antecedent liquid precipitation, snow cover changes, generated and routed runoff, areal extents of events, and the above‐average runoff from major sub‐basins up to 10 days before a streamflow peak. We introduce and assess the analytical setup by presenting the flood genesis of the two well‐known Rhine floods that occurred in January 1995 and May 1999. We share our extensive collection of event‐based Rhine River flood genesis, which can be used in‐ and outside the scientific community to explore the complexity and diversity of historic and projected flood genesis in the Rhine basin. An interactive web‐based viewer provides easy access to all major historic and projected streamflow peaks at four locations along the Rhine. The comparison of peak flow genesis depending on different warming levels elucidates the role of changes in snow cover and precipitation characteristics in the (pre‐)Alps for flood hazards along the entire channel of the Rhine. Furthermore, our results suggest a positive correlation between flood magnitudes and areal extents of an event. Further hydro‐climatological research is required to improve the understanding of the climatic impact on the Rhine and beyond.