Flooding

Flooding is an overflowing of water onto land that is normally dry. Floods can happen quickly and can have a number of causes.

Flash flooding is the most dangerous kind of flooding, because it happens incredibly fast. It occurs when heavy rainfall quickly saturates the ground, so further water cannot drain and rapidly spills onto dry land.

Important definitions:

Flood risk - a combination of the probability (likelihood or chance) of an event happening and the consequences (impact) if it occurred.

Flood mitigation - actions to reduce the risk of flood damage to buildings and infrastructure.

Flood adaptation - actions to strengthen communities to help them withstand the impacts of flooding.

Flood resilience - the capacity of a community to be prepared, ready to respond, able to cope and recover from a flood event.

It is important to acknowledge that you live in a flood risk area, to make sure flood mitigation and adaptation strategies are in place to make your community resilient to flooding.