Emergency management requires adopting practical approaches, including either structural or non-structural mitigation. One of the leading hazards that contemporary societies deal with from time to time is floods. One of the most prevalent flood is the 2013 Alberta floods that caused unprecedented loses and risks to property and lives. Floods such as this result from heavy rainfall, hurricanes, overflowing rivers, and ice or snowmelt. The primary risks caused by this hazard include the spread of infectious illnesses, injuries to humans and animals, and cause chemical hazards. In most instances, floods are challenging to predict, implying that they ought to be prepared and responded to at all times. In flood hazards, structural mitigation and non-structural mitigation must be used to address this problem and reduce the associated risks. This discussion starts with discussing floodwater diversion and structure elevation as structural and non-structural mitigation to address flooding and further discusses the effectiveness of these two approaches.
Structural mitigation strategies are among the most effective methods of dealing with the consequences of floods and other natural environmental problems. Velarde et al. (2021) view structural mitigation as the physical changes put in place to prevent a specific hazard or disaster. Structural mitigation measures pursue to protect individuals, property, and animals from the consequences of a natural disaster, including floods. In this case, this form of mitigation counteracts a given flood event in an attempt to minimize the issue or influence the possibility of the flooding event taking place. These mitigation approaches often strive to cover water management at both the catchment area and locations that could be affected severely by the floods.
One structural mitigation strategy that could be adopted to address floods as a significant hazard is floodwater diversion and storage. While floodwater causes the most damage to property and humans, the ability to divert the water to different locations is a notable structural mitigation approach. According to Serra-Llobet et al. (2018), diverting floodwater specifically to reservoirs, pipes, canals, and wetlands will help to prevent the risks associated with this environmental hazard. More specifically, adopting this structural mitigation approach plays an essential role in allowing a relatively controlled water release outside metropolitan and residential areas. As a result, this minimizes water flow to areas that might increase flooding. According to Tyler et al. (2019) more than sixteen states have adopted this structural mitigation strategy in the U.S. floodwater diversion also helps in benefiting the local ecosystem and mitigating bank erosion while at the same reducing the risks put forth to individuals. Therefore, this highlights that floodwater diversion is an essential strategy in addressing the flood hazard among communities.
Although floodwater diversion is an integral approach to address flood hazards, a leading challenge associated with this approach is keeping the water flow paths existing in the diversion to be clear. These diversion paths could be blocked by associated issues like being free of development incompatibility. This concern could be aggravated by the idea that most of the paths could be in private lands. Therefore, its implementation could be challenging to the local governments as a result of this concern. Another significant challenge with the implementation of floodwater diversion is changing climate (Serra-Llobet et al. 2018). In most cases, climate change tends to bring too much water, resulting in the diversions being overwhelmed. It becomes a challenge since climate change intensifies the hydrological cycle causing an increase in frequency and magnitude of extreme rainfall or changes in floods seasonality.
Structural methods could not address the risks and challenges of flooding completely. Due to this, non-structural mitigations are considered fundamental approaches in addressing the challenge associated with flooding. Non-structural measures involve techniques that do not necessarily use specific structures. Other than being effective in addressing the flooding hazards, these methods are cost-effective when paralleled with structural strategies. They tend to vary in different aspects such as political effort, effectiveness, and cost necessary for its implementation. The adoption of a specific non-structural measure often relies on elements like expected flood levels, topography, public acceptance, and funds availability.
Considering the available non-structural approaches, structure elevation provides the most effective results to the flooding hazard is structure elevation. Structure elevation in addressing the flood crisis involves raising structures such as houses and ground level to be on the expected flood level (Conitz et al., 2021). This method prevents flooding since the water level fails to reach the buildings preventing flooding. According to this approach, an existing structure is lifted and ought to be either greater than or least equal to the one percent yearly chance of flood elevation. In most scenarios associated with this strategy, the elevation cost of a given structure of more than one foot or two is not as expensive as the first foot due to the cost required to mobilize equipment. This method is often realized using fill material that is done on extended foundation walls, columns, and piles. This strategy is also proved to be effective for structures like a slab on grade.
Obstacles in implementing this non-structural method do exist and may potentially interfere with its effectiveness. A crucial challenge is that properties that provide exceptional service to individuals with disabilities could necessitate elevators of long ramps. Therefore, this brings the problem of increased costs that may make the elevation process economically feasible. This means that the government and the locals will incur increased charges to make this strategy effective. Additionally, there exists a significant concern that elevating an entire community could develop the issue of small islands made of houses in a flood event. Therefore this becomes a problem when it comes to accessing residential places during floods. When fire outbreaks exist or medical emergencies, it could be challenging for first responders to gain access to these homes. In case the flooding lasts for a considerable duration, the elevated homes could be regarded as inhabitable and inaccessible.
Flooding is a severe hazard that needs to be addressed because it often poses severe threats to human beings and property. It is crucial to consider both structural and non-structural methods to identify the best strategy that provides the most effective solution to this hazard. Considering the structural and non-structural methods presented above, it would be more effective if the two were applied in tandem. This will play an essential role in making them more effective in dealing with the problem. Using both structure elevation and floodwater diversion will work cohesively to ensure that floods are effectively controlled irrespective of the adversity they could present. Future studies could consider researching the adoption and practicality of using contemporary technology to use flood warning systems since it provides an integral approach to addressing floods.
References
Conitz, F., Zingraff-Hamed, A., Lupp, G., & Pauleit, S. (2021). Non-Structural Flood Management in European Rural Mountain Areas—Are Scientists Supporting Implementation? Hydrology, 8(4), 167.
Serra‐Llobet, A., Kondolf, G. M., Magdaleno, F., & Keenan‐Jones, D. (2022). Flood diversions and bypasses: Benefits and challenges. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Water, 9(1), e1562.
Tyler, J., Sadiq, A. A., & Noonan, D. S. (2019). A Review of the Community Flood Risk Management Literature in the USA: Lessons for Improving Community Resilience to Floods. Natural Hazards, 96(3), 1223-1248.
Velarde, R. L., Perez, A. A., & Garcia, M. J. J. (2021). Debris flow modelling incorporating structural mitigation measures with FLO-2D.
Wasim, M., Han, T. M., Huang, H., Madiyev, M., & Ngo, T. D. (2020). An approach for sustainable, cost-effective and optimised material design for the prefabricated non-structural components of residential buildings. Journal of Building Engineering, 32, 101474.