Boscastle is a village located in the county of Cornwall in the south east of the UK on the coast. It has a natural harbour within a narrow ravine and is the point at which two rivers, the Valency and its tributary the Jordan, converge. On the 16th of August 2004, these rivers flooded which caused the destruction of many buildings and roads. A flood is a natural event in which water flows over its normal limit, submerging usually dry land.
There were many physical factors which led to the floods in Boscastle. Firstly, the rainfall was extremely harsh as one month's rainfall, over 60mm, fell in two hours. This led to flash floods and a high volume of water, 8 inches, falling straight into the river channel which increased overland flow. This caused a reduction in lag time as water can reach the river channel more quickly via overland flow rather than through flow or groundwater flow. …show more content…
The impact of the flood could have been decreased if the shallow banks surrounding the river were raised and emergency drainage ditches were built as both would have prevented too much water from reaching the village. This reduced lag time as any flood control systems or drainage systems would have been able to effectively manage the flow of water. Thus, they would have been able to increase the time taken to reach peak flow and so lag time.
There were many effects of these floods, both economic, social and environmental. Firstly, one economic effect was damage to buildings across the area which cost the North Cornwall District Council up to £2 million. This was a primary effect of the flood because it was a occurred directly due to the flood event but it was also a long term effect as the council had to continue to pay for repairs for a long period of time after the event. This affected the local economy and other sectors of the council such as education as less money was available to be
There were many physical factors which led to the floods in Boscastle. Firstly, the rainfall was extremely harsh as one month's rainfall, over 60mm, fell in two hours. This led to flash floods and a high volume of water, 8 inches, falling straight into the river channel which increased overland flow. This caused a reduction in lag time as water can reach the river channel more quickly via overland flow rather than through flow or groundwater flow. …show more content…
The impact of the flood could have been decreased if the shallow banks surrounding the river were raised and emergency drainage ditches were built as both would have prevented too much water from reaching the village. This reduced lag time as any flood control systems or drainage systems would have been able to effectively manage the flow of water. Thus, they would have been able to increase the time taken to reach peak flow and so lag time.
There were many effects of these floods, both economic, social and environmental. Firstly, one economic effect was damage to buildings across the area which cost the North Cornwall District Council up to £2 million. This was a primary effect of the flood because it was a occurred directly due to the flood event but it was also a long term effect as the council had to continue to pay for repairs for a long period of time after the event. This affected the local economy and other sectors of the council such as education as less money was available to be