Greenhouse Gases and Flooding

¶ … Risk of on Floodplains Flooding is a natural phenomenon, occurring when the build-up in a body of water leads to a discharge which is greater than containment capacity (Paul and Rashid 13). A floodplain is an area located next to the body of water which is usually dry but prone to flooding when the water levels rise beyond the capacity of the river, stream, or other body of water (OAS 1; National Geographic 1).

While it is a natural phenomenon, governments and insurance companies view flooding and a risk, with the potential for communities to suffer when flooding occurs, with short-term impacts resulting in damage to property and forcing people out of affected homes, in the longer term there are the potential health impacts with flood water limiting access to essential resources and frequently holding contaminants (Burby 111). The issue of flooding has become more pertinent with two main factors impacting on its occurrence.

Firstly, an increasing population sizes which are resulting in increased demand for homes. To accommodate the needs, more homes have been built on flood plains. This is not only seen in the U.S., where there are more than 6 million buildings located on flood plains (Burby 111), for example, in the UK more than 100,000 new homes are built every year on floodplains (Allen and Bounds 1).

Even where buildings are not been placed on, there may be located in areas where construction reduces the ability for rivers run-off which increases the potential that the body wall to exceed its capacity. The second impact is global warming; increased levels of water resulting from the warmer climate, which includes the melting of glacial ice (Arnell and Lloyd-Hughes 128; Dahlman and Renwick 96). Issues such as increased levels of greenhouse gases as a result of emission following the burning of fossil fuels are a major impact (Dahlman and Renwick 95).

This is a major issue due to the rising number of floods that are occurring. As rain levels increase, there is a higher potential for a body if water to excide its capacity. The global rise in temperatures is also increasing the potential for hurricanes and flooding as a result of the increased rainfall and surge tides, which increases risks exponentially in hurricane areas such as Florida and Texas (Arnell and Lloyd-Hughes 128).

This has led to a position where over the preceding five years, all fifty states in the U.S. have suffered from some sort of flooding (Floodsmart.gov 1). The issue is particularly pertinent for both government and insurance companies due to the level of damage that can be caused.

For example, a it is be argued that even a few inches of floodwater are able to cause, tens of thousands of dollars of damage, and if the floodwaters rise to 2 feet in height, and on the a sufficient velocity, they will have sufficient capital to carry a car (Floodsmart.gov 1). This indicates that where a flood occurs there are significant costs incurred. This has a potentially high cost to insurance companies, paying out claims, especially in years where there is an exponential increase in the level of flooding occurred.

However, insurance companies to manage their potential costs through setting of insurance premiums, and managing the amount that can be claimed. For example, homeowners insurance will not cover all flood damage suffered (Floodsmart.gov 1). With homeowners mandated to have flood insurance they live in a special Flood Hazard area, or in high risk area with a federally backed mortgage, potential for government to be minimised through homeowners providing short.

However, homeowners insurance can be highly, and not cover all losses, with some significant issues which need to be faced by government. Federal disaster assistance can be claimed by homeowners, but this is a loan more than the, with an interest rate of 4%, needs to be repaid (Floodsmart.gov 1). The government also has to deal with damage that has occurred to government and special federal property, such as government buildings and the infrastructure.

Infrastructure issues often take priority, as they are needed to support general recovery, and are an essential element to support the local economy. The issue and risks associated with that, especially on floodplains, is likely to continue, is not only do buildings continue to exist on floodplains, there are numerous of construction companies continuing to build property on floodplains. In addition, it is predicted global temperatures are likely to continue rising (Dahlman.