Chong Boon Secondary SchoolGeography UnitSec 2 Unit 5Lesson 3:

How do floods affect people living in cities?

How are communities affected by

natural hazards?

Inquiry Question

A poem about Queensland floods.

PG 172

Key Social Impacts

• The effect of an event on the well-being of people.

• Injuries

• Spread of diseases

• Loss of lives

•Homelessness

•Disruption to clean water supply

Injuries, spread of diseases and loss of lives• People hurt by debris in floodwaters.

• Buildings may collapse and cause more damage.

• Diseases may spread due to the floodwaters.

• Chemical spills from sewage and industries.

• Spread of waterborne diseases like cholera and dysentery.

• Emotional stress.

Homelessness

• Floodwaters damage property.

•Houses are destroyed.

•People evacuate to emergency shelters

• Temporary / permeant

•Hurricane Katrina victims put up in The Astrodome Stadium in Houston.

Disruption to clean water supply

•Damaged water pipes

•Sewage pipes damage leading to contamination

•Contamination of water supplies by dirty floodwater.

Read the case-study on pg 175

Polluted water

Economic impacts

• The effect of an event on goods and services produced.

• Floods halt economic activities.

•Machinery, equipment and transport infrastructure are damaged.

• Energy supply can be disrupted.

• Large costs involved to repair damage.

Damage to machinery & equipment•Machinery & equipment submerged

in water are damaged.

•Damage to electrical parts, flooded motors.

• Factories unable to operate at maximum capacity.

• Loss of Jobs.

Damage to transport infrastructure

• Transport infrastructure : roads, railways, subways, etc.

• Flooding submerges or damages infrastructure.

• Landslides lead to greater destruction.

Disruption to energy supply

• Floods can affect energy supply directly or indirectly.

• Direct disruption

• Power lines destroyed.

• Power stations flooded.

• Indirect disruption

• Fuel unable to reach consumers

• Trucks cannot supply gasoline / LPG

Flooding in Thailand

Summary

•What are the social impacts of floods?

•What are the economic impacts of floods?

Group Exercise Time!

Take a look at the data that you have

been issued.Discuss and Answer

the questions.

Read the article below. Underline the social impacts of the flood in blueUnderline the economic impacts of the flood in red.

TEAM Members

For each impact , describe how it may have been affected by the disruption to energy supply caused by the floods in Thailand (2011).One impact has been done for you as a reference.

Impact Best estimate(in millions of US

dollars)

Households (buildings and contents) 400

Industries (buildings, contents & disruption)

800

Vehicles (motor transport) 300

Utilities (electricity, gas, water) 200

Communications (rail, road, telecom) 300

Communications

• No energy, no streetlamps / traffic signals.

• No power for subways.• Roads damaged by

floodwaters.• Telecommunication

lines damaged, no telephone networks.

• No energy, mobile devices unable to be charged.

UtilitiesVehiclesIndustriesHouseholds