Hydrologic Analysis of Flood Flows

Abstract

Floods and its devastating effects have been known from the beginning of life on earth. Its prevention or mitigation is therefore of high importance — to ensure a sustained human and ecological life. The purpose of flood control is to eliminate or reduce damage caused by the flooding of areas adjacent to rivers, or by the overtopping of engineering structures like dams, embankments or bridges. Flood control may be accomplished by means of the following general types of hydraulic structures:

• 1. Reservoirs — where part of the flood waters can be temporarily retained to help reduce the flood peak, and the passage of water masses is stretched over a longer period of time at a reduced flow rate; or

• 2. Levees — built along rivers to protect the adjoining areas by confining the flood to a particular channel, and in which case the flood peak may be increased because of the elimination of storage in areas that otherwise would have been inundated.