Rivers and coasts under human pressure

Floods affect people in very different ways depending on where they live and what protection they have. Three photographs show the range.

Keeping Hope Dry — People wading through floodwater in Bangladesh. Md shameem ul islam, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Sandbags by the front doors on South Brink, Wisbech - geograph.org.uk - 3773277 — Sandbags against a house door in standing water, UK. Richard Humphrey, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Niederschrems Kreuzung 2002-08-13 Jahrhunderthochwasser — Fast floodwater past houses on an Austrian street. Duke of W4, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In Bangladesh, people are already inside the flood and moving through it. In the UK, a household has had time to prepare, which suggests a warning arrived before the water. In Austria, the water is moving fast through a built-up street, the kind of sudden flooding that leaves little time to react.

Nearly every river on Earth has been changed by people. We farm beside rivers, build towns on their banks, cut down trees in their upper courses, dam them, straighten them and sometimes divert them completely. Coasts are altered in similar ways. These changes can pollute the water, change how quickly water reaches a river, and raise or lower the risk of flooding. To judge any of this, you first need to understand how water moves through the landscape.

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