The many types of floods

Flooding is one of the most prevalent and damaging hazards to physical assets, and one of the most important to plan against. Flooding is most often differentiated as either riverine, coastal, or pluvial flooding. Riverine flooding occurs when excessive rain causes river water levels to rise above riverbanks. Coastal flooding is caused by higher-than-average tides but can also be intensified by excessive rainfall and strong winds. Riverine or coastal flooding can often occur during tropical cyclones, as well. Pluvial flooding occurs when extreme rainfall overwhelms storm drains or traverses over the ground; flash floods are a type of pluvial flooding.??

Finally, storm surge, one of the largest threats to coastal communities, is the rise of water levels over and above predicted astronomical tides during or after a storm. Storm surge risk assessment and mitigation planning is likely imperative for the future. Communities and businesses should develop flood and storm surge mitigation plans that factor in rising sea levels and the likelihood of increased storm frequency and severity under different climate change emissions scenarios in the future.

Our solution, Geospatial Climate Intelligence, incorporates high-resolution precision to flood risk assessments to address these different types of flooding.