Class Notes Pakistan 2010 Floods Case Study for IB Geography
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Module
Geography
Institution
Sixth Year / 12th Grade
Detailed notes on the 2010 Pakistan floods, ideal for including in IB Geography (Option A: Freshwater) essays, exams and other assignments. Covers impacts, scale, post-event management and causes of the flood to give a comprehensive overview of the flood event. Important facts and statistics needed...
THE PAKISTAN FLOODS OF 2010
Background:
Date: 26 July 2010 – August 2010
The floods in Pakistan began in late July
2010, resulting from heavy monsoon
rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,
Sindh, Punjab and Balochistan regions
of Pakistan, which affected the Indus
River basin.
Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan’s
total land area was affected by floods,
with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
facing the brunt of the damage and
casualties (above 90% of all the deaths
occurred in the province). Nationwide,
there were 1,985 deaths.
According to Pakistani government
data, the floods directly affected about 20 million people, mostly by destruction of
property, livelihood and infrastructure.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had initially asked for US$ 460 million for
emergency relief, noting that the flood was the worst disaster he had ever seen.
Only 20% of the relief funds requested had been received on 15 August 2010. The
UN had been concerned that aid was not arriving fast enough.
The Pakistani economy was harmed by extensive damage to infrastructure and
crops. Damage to structures was estimated to exceed US$ 4 billion and wheat crop
damages were estimated to be over US$ 500 million. Total economic impact may
have been as much as US$ 43 billion.
The Causes of the Flood
Physical Causes
From its headwaters in the Himalayas of Tibet, the River Indus flows
northwest through India before turning sharply south across Pakistan
It finally discharges into the Arabian Sea, a journey of some 3,200 km.
The River Indus has an annual flood caused by tropical monsoon rainfall.
It's rich alluvium floodplain led to one of the cradles of civilization, 9000 years
ago.
However, this flood's magnitude was, according to Professor Rajiv Sinha from
the Indian Institute of Technology, 5 or even 10 times stronger than normal.
, The annual monsoon is caused by the movement of warm moisture laden air
from the Indian Ocean toward areas of low pressure, marked out by the Inter-
Tropical Convergent Zone (ITCZ) over the subcontinent.
Here, the subcontinent is superheated which creates strong rising thermals of
low pressure.
As warm air moves over the subcontinent it rises and dumps vast quantities
of rainfall, which cools the surface and replenishes the vital soil moisture and
ground water.
In July 2010, more than half the normal rains fell in just one week in an
unprecedented sequence of days.
Intense rainfall totalling in excess of 200mm fell in a 4-day period from 27th
to 30th July along with above average rainfall in August.
The recorded monsoon rainfall associated with La Nina was the highest in a
50-year period.
The total area affected by flooding was 796,095 square kilometres,
approximately 1/5 of Pakistan's total land area
There was much discussion over exact causes of this level of rainfall
La Nina, which is a coupled ocean-atmosphere phenomenon that impacts
southeast Pacific Ocean temperature but is also thought to increase Indian
monsoon rainfall was thought to be a contributing factor.
The cycle of El Nino and La Nina, which are both important global heat
transfers seem to be occurring more frequently and is potentially a
consequence of climate change.
Climate change scientists are observing both greater spatial variation and
severity in the monsoon rains.
Scientists have observed in the last 30 years a 40–60-mile northwest shift in
the Pakistan monsoon.
A second report in the New Scientist linked the severe monsoon to the effects
of a phenomenon that was freezing the jet stream.
o This had in the same been previously associated with forest fires and
heat waves in Russia
Another contributing factor is the alluvial nature of the River Indus.
The Indus is obstructed with vast quantities of sediment supplied by its
Himalayan headwaters.
When combined with raised levees, the sediment only serve to obstruct the
river further
o This reduces its capacity thus causing the likelihood of floods to
increase.
Human Causes
Raised levees and protected banks contain the sediment and reduce the river
capacity.
In this way river management is seen to exacerbate river floods along the
Indus.
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