The River Rhine Case Study

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The River Rhine Case Study

The River Rhine rises in the Swiss Alps about 3,353 metres above sea

level and flows north, passing through or bordering Switzerland,

Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France, and the Netherlands and then

its mouth is located at the North Sea. The Rhine is usually at its

maximum volume during the seasons of spring and summer; this is due to

the fact that there is the melted water of snow and glaciers. In this

enquiry I am looking at the aspect of river flooding in the Rhine,

particularly in 1995. A river flood is when a river spills its banks

onto areas of land surrounding it that are not usually covered by

water.

Causes

The main causes for river flooding are:

S Heavy rainfall - causes soil to become saturated and not allow

infiltration.

S Rapidly melting snow

S Dam bursts

S Soil saturation - this may cause a river to flood as the water would

not be able to infiltrate the soil and so will encourage overland

flow.

S Deforestation - this may cause flooding as there are no trees to

intercept the rain and so the soil will become saturated.

S Ploughing - this may cause flooding as it creates gullies which

water can flow down towards the river

S Urbanisation (extending built up areas) - this may cause a river to

flood as the concrete and tarmac that is laid over the soil send more

water to the river than to the fields which they replaced.

As you can gather from the above information the causes can be

categorised into human and natural effects. The flooding of the River

Rhine in past and recent dates has mainly been caused by human

infliction, with only few natural causes....

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...ter the 1995 floods a further £1 billion was being planned to be

spent on flood protection.

S Remove silt from the forelands, the silt could be used to build

bricks or dykes, which would otherwise slowly lose their capacity to

hold floodwater as one flood after another deposits silt.

S Encourage land uses in the Rhine basin which increase absorption of

rainwater such as contour ploughing and increasing the area of gardens

and parks in urban areas.

S Flood retention basins could be built, these are areas of land

surrounded by dykes in which flood water is directed into to reduce

the river's water level. When the flood is gone the water from the

basin is slowly transferred back into the channel.

S Allow the river to flow back through marshland areas which had been

previously sealed off for navigation purposes

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