Gaeilge

Types & Causes of Flooding

Flooding can occur from a range of sources, individually or combined, as described below.

Coastal flooding

Coastal flooding occurs when sea levels along the coast or in estuaries exceed neighbouring land levels, or overcome coastal defences where these exist, or when waves overtop over the coast. Wind speed and direction and low pressure systems can force water into estuaries and harbours, cause surge effects, and create extreme wave conditions, such as those seen in the storm events in the Winter of 2013/2014.

Fluvial (River) flooding

Fluvial flooding occurs when rivers and streams break their banks and water flows out onto the adjacent low-lying areas (the natural floodplains). This can arise where the runoff from heavy rain exceeds the natural capacity of the river channel, and can be exacerbated where a channel is blocked or constrained or, in estuarine areas, where high tide levels impede the flow of the river out into the sea.

Different rivers will respond differently to rainfall events, depending on a range of factors such as the size and slope of the catchment, the permeability of the soil and underlying rock, the degree of urbanisation of the catchment and the degree to which flood waters can be stored and slowly released into lakes and along the river's floodplains. A storm of a given rainfall depth and duration may cause flooding in one river, but not in another, and some catchments may be more prone than others to prolonged rainfall or a series of rain events. River flooding can occur rapidly in short, steep rivers or after some time, and some distance from where the rain fell, in larger or more gently flowing rivers. Changes in rainfall patterns, such as might be caused by climate change, will have different impacts on flood magnitudes and frequency in different catchments.

There have been a number of fluvial flood events in recent years in Ireland; most notably in November 2009 and December 2015/January 2016.

Pluvial (Rainfall) flooding

Pluvial flooding occurs when the amount of rainfall exceeds the capacity of urban storm water drainage systems or the ground to absorb it. This excess water flows overland, ponding in natural or man-made hollows and low-lying areas or behind obstructions. This occurs as a rapid response to intense rainfall before the flood waters eventually enter a piped or natural drainage system. This type of flooding is driven in particular by short, intense rain storms, such as that which occurred over the Dublin area in October 2011.

Groundwater flooding

Groundwater flooding occurs when the level of water stored in the ground rises as a result of prolonged rainfall, to meet the ground surface and flows out over it, i.e. when the capacity of this underground reservoir is exceeded. Groundwater flooding tends to be very local and results from the interaction of site-specific factors such as local geology and tidal variations. While water level may rise slowly, groundwater flooding can last for extended periods of time. Hence, such flooding may often result in significant damage to property and disruption.

In Ireland, groundwater flooding is most commonly related to turloughs in the karstic limestone areas prevalent in particular in the west of Ireland. Extensive groundwater flooding occurred around South Galway and areas of Mayo, Roscommon and neighbouring counties in 1995, November 2009 and December 2015/January 2016 due to extended periods of heavy rain.

Other sources of flooding

The above causes of flooding are all natural; caused by either extreme sea levels or heavy or intense rainfall. Floods can also be caused by the failure or exceedance of capacity of built or man-made infrastructure, such as bridge collapses, from blocked or under-sized drainage systems or other piped networks, or the failure or overtopping of reservoirs or other water-retaining embankments (such as raised canals).