Difference between Flash Floods and Regional Floods: Causes and Effects
Flash flooding is a type of flood that is caused by excessive rainfall within a short period which is less than six hours. Uncontrolled torrents characterize flash floods after heavy rains. They rip through streets or river beds sweeping everything. Flash floods can take place within a few hours of rainfall (Sene, 2012) . Also, they can happen without rain, for instance, if a dam or levee has failed. Flash flood happen so quickly that it catches people off-guard, which is dangerous. It is especially dangerous when people meet fast moving water when traveling. Flash flooding has adverse effects because it occurs everywhere; from highway underpass to city streets. Also, it is unsafe being indoors because people may be trapped at home or in their businesses because of its rapid movement, which may also cause damage to property, leaving people counting losses.
On the other hand, regional flooding is seasonal and usually occur when river banks and flood banks are overfell by a combination of winter, spring rain, and melting snow to flood the banks. Regional floods also take place during heavy rains when the rain saturates the soil, and the runoff overflows rivers and streams. Just like flash flooding, regional flooding has adverse effects on human life and property. An example that happened in history occurred in 1936 in New England that resulted in 150 deaths and damage to property worth $300 million.
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Future Control of Mississippi River
It is prudent to agree that floods in the Mississippi river keep getting more severe and more frequent. However, that does not stop the innovation of effective strategies to control the Mississippi River in the future. This has called for more measure to be put in place in the effort of controlling the Mississippi not just for the moment but also for the future. Most of the measures taken have been structural, which entails the use of reservoirs and levees to curb the effects of floods.
Effectiveness of the Levee System
The levee system is not new to Mississippi river as it has been constructed from as early as the eighteenth century which has continued to this day. However, the infrastructure meant to mitigate the Mississippi from flooding is making the problem even worse. The levees built along the Mississippi river increase the risk of floods for the residents (Remo, Carlson & Pinter, 2012) . The infrastructure put in place to mitigate the risk of flooding have led to severe flooding than it would have been without levees, driving people to build more levees which drive a hydrological spiral of flooding while the sequence of building more levees continues.
A levee system offers protection but can increase water levels. Levees create a bottleneck when they exist on both sides of the river thus leading to backwater effect which can lead to a rise in water levels upstream thereby leading to floods in areas which might not have flooded before building the downstream levees.
Chemical Formula of Fire
Combustion is the chemical reaction that results to fire. Flames are produced at a certain point of the combustion reaction known as ignition point. Flames are primarily made up of carbon dioxide, oxygen, water vapor, and nitrogen. Fire is a product of combustion of organic material and oxygen. A flame does not have a chemical formula. However, the chemical formula can be termed as 2 C 4 H 10 + 13 0 2 → 8 C0 2 + 20 H 2 0 . Without a doubt, fire is an important aspect of human life, thereby making it a necessary element in the ecosystem. Regular occurrence of fire, for instance, reduces the amount of fuel build-up hence reducing the likelihood of a large fire from taking place.
Fire: the Necessary Evil
Fire also a vital role in controlling insect pests by killing off diseased trees besides providing shelter for nesting birds. However, despite the fact that fire being a necessary element in the ecosystem, it is also disastrous to thereby explaining why it is included in textbooks as a disaster. Fire is catastrophic because of the adverse effects it causes on the ecosystem. For instance, fire destroys homes and vegetation, leaving both human beings and animals without shelter. A lot of money is spent to repair the damages, thereby having negative implications on the economy.
Fire destroys soil structure because of the heat which burns all the nutrients and natural ingredients in the soil. Lives are lost in fire as well as causing air pollution because of the vast smoke released into the atmosphere, making it difficult to breathe. These, among other reasons, explain why textbooks consider fire a disaster. It, therefore, calls for drastic measures by relevant stakeholders to mitigate the fire disaster may cause that.
How a Wildfire Creates Its Wind
Weather plays a significant role in the start and growth of a wildfire. Drought creates favorable conditions for wildfire. Consequently, wind aids the faster movement of wildfire. Wind is the most unpredictable factor in a wildfire. Wildfire is supplied with oxygen by wind as well as push the fire across the wild at a faster rate (Collins, Penman & Price, 2016) . Wildfires create their wind patterns, thereby develop a path and how they can spread. Massive wildfires can generate winds known as fire whirls. Fire whirls are like tornadoes and can emanate from vortices formed by the heat of a violent wildfire (Collins, Penman & Price, 2016) . Fire whirls hurl flaming logs thereby covering a considerable distance. The spread of fire is dictated by the strength of the wind. A strong fire generates its wind that is faster than the ambient wind. Such a fire can change the direction of the fire, thereby leading to more fire.
Methods of Fire Prevention
There are various ways of preventing wildfires as both human and natural factors cause them. Wildfires have been reported to have been caused by careless disposal of cigarettes (Collins, Penman & Price, 2016) . Therefore, it is important that people dispose smoking materials properly, such as in a can of sand and not throwing them directly to dried leaves. People should follow local laws and regulations regarding burning fires and the substances allowed to burn. Being updated on the weather is also crucial as it ensures no burning of materials when the winds are high.
Why Some Methods Are Effective and Others Not
Various factors determine the effectiveness of a fire prevention strategy. Some of the factors that determine if a fire prevention strategy will work include the strength of the wind, the temperature, and the seasons, among others. Fire is a challenging aspect not only to human being s but also the environment at large, which should be given a lot of attention to ease the effect it comes with it. It is thus vital for relevant for effective measures to be adapted in order to manage wildfires effectively. By managing wildfire, the ecosystem will thrive, and this will make textbooks not to see fire as a disaster but rather a part of the ecosystem.
References
Collins, K. M., Penman, T. D., & Price, O. F. (2016). Some wildfire ignition causes pose more risk of destroying houses than others. PLoS one , 11 (9), e0162083.
Remo, J. W., Carlson, M., & Pinter, N. (2012). Hydraulic and flood-loss modeling of levee, floodplain, and river management strategies, Middle Mississippi River, USA. Natural hazards , 61 (2), 551-575.
Sene, K. (2012). Flash floods: forecasting and warning . Springer Science & Business Media.
