Definition
Flooding is a natural process that occurs when the level of a body of water rises until it overflows its natural banks or artificial levees and submerges areas that were usually dry. Along a watercourse, a flood can manifest itself annually. Usually high water flow is contained between the natural banks or artificial levees, but when the volume of the flood waters can no longer be contained within those natural or artificial confines, waters expand into the surrounding areas. The flood extent follows a dynamic propagation that depends essentially on the amount of water that overflows, the speed of the water flow, and the morphology of the surrounding areas (Fig. 1).
Large area flooded through a break produced by collapsing of the levee embankment: Kinugawa River in Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture on 10 September 2015 (From: http://mashable.com/2015/09/10/japan-flooding-photos/#fKrjhULU08qi – The Yomiuri Shimbun/Associated Press)
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Luino, F. (2018). Floods. In: Bobrowsky, P.T., Marker, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73568-9_126
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