Floods News

April 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Hidden Threat: Global Underground Infrastructure Vulnerable to Sea-Level Rise

Apr. 15, 2024 — As sea levels rise, coastal groundwater is lifted closer to the ground surface while also becoming saltier and more corrosive. A recent study compiled research from experts worldwide showing that in ...

A Smarter City Skyline for Flood Safety

Apr. 9, 2024 — With climate change and rising urbanization, the likelihood and severity of urban flooding are increasing. But not all city blocks are created equal. Researchers investigated how urban layout and building structures contribute to pedestrian safety ...

Shy Sea Anemones Are More Likely to Survive Heatwaves

Apr. 4, 2024 — A study shows that sea anemones that react more slowly to change can survive a heatwave better than individuals that change their behavior ...

Land Under Water: What Causes Extreme Flooding?

Mar. 27, 2024 — If rivers overflow their banks, the consequences can be devastating -- just like the catastrophic floods in North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate of 2021 showed. In order to limit flood damage and optimize flood risk assessment, we need to ...

Latest Headlines

updated 9:24am EDT

Florida Wildlife Corridor Eases Worst Impacts of Climate Change

Apr. 16, 2024 — Florida is projected to lose 3.5 million acres of land to development by 2070. A new study highlights how Florida can buffer itself against both climate change and population pressures by conserving ...

Testing Environmental Water to Monitor COVID-19 Spread in Unsheltered Encampments

Apr. 3, 2024 — To better understand COVID-19's spread during the pandemic, public health officials expanded wastewater surveillance. These efforts track SARS-CoV-2 ...

What If the Heavy Rain Would Have Fallen 50 Kilometers Away?

Mar. 27, 2024 — Floods affect more people worldwide than any other natural hazard, causing enormous damage that is expected to increase in a warming world. However, people and decision-makers in vulnerable regions ...

India's Water Problems Set to Get Worse as the World Warms

Mar. 11, 2024 — Winter storms known as western disturbances that provide crucial snow and rainfall to northern India are arriving significantly later in the ...

Sinking Land Increases Risk for Thousands of Coastal Residents by 2050

Mar. 6, 2024 — A new study provides a new comprehensive look at the potential for flooding in a combined 32 cities along the Atlantic, Pacific, and Gulf coasts. It predicts as many as 500,000 people will be ...

Researchers Shed Light on River Resiliency to Flooding

Feb. 15, 2024 — Researchers have completed one of the most extensive river resilience studies, examining how river ecosystems recover following floods. They developed a novel modeling approach that used data from ...

Compounding Risks of Atmospheric River Storms

Jan. 29, 2024 — When storms hit back-to-back, the flooding -- and economic damages -- are even worse than ...

2020 US Rule Dramatically Deregulated Wetlands, Streams and Drinking Water

Jan. 25, 2024 — New research used machine learning to more accurately predict which waterways are protected by the Clean Water Act. The analysis found that a 2020 Trump administration rule removed Clean Water Act ...

Researchers Advocate for Sustainable Logging to Safeguard Against Global Flood Risks

Jan. 24, 2024 — It's time to recognize the power of healthy forests in managing global growing flood risk, and to shift towards more sustainable forestry practices ...

New Tool Predicts Flood Risk from Hurricanes in a Warming Climate

Jan. 24, 2024 — A new method predicts how much flooding a coastal community is likely to experience as hurricanes evolve due to climate change. Using New York as a test case, the model predicts Hurricane Sandy-level ...

Beaches and Dunes Globally Squeezed by Roads and Buildings

Jan. 11, 2024 — Beaches and dunes globally squeezed by roads and buildings. Beaches and dunes are becoming increasingly trapped between rising sea levels and infrastructure. Researchers found that today, when ...

Record Heat in 2023 Worsened Global Droughts, Floods and Wildfires

Jan. 11, 2024 — Record heat across the world profoundly impacted the global water cycle in 2023, contributing to severe storms, floods, megadroughts and bushfires, new research ...

From NYC to DC and Beyond, Cities on the East Coast Are Sinking

Jan. 2, 2024 — Major cities on the U.S. Atlantic coast are sinking, in some cases as much as 5 millimeters per year -- a decline at the ocean's edge that well outpaces global sea level rise, confirms new ...

Genetic Sequencing Uncovers Unexpected Source of Pathogens in Floodwaters

Dec. 19, 2023 — Researchers report that local rivers and streams were the source of the Salmonella enterica contamination along coastal North Carolina after Hurricane Florence in 2018 -- not the previously suspected ...

Three Decades of Data in Bangladesh Show Elevated Risk of Infant Mortality In Flood-Prone Areas

Dec. 5, 2023 — A new study estimates 152,753 excess infant deaths were attributable to living in flood-prone areas in Bangladesh over the past 30 years. The findings begin to unspool the long term public health ...

Being Prepared for Storm Surges on the Baltic Sea Coast

Nov. 29, 2023 — The record storm surge in October 2023 caused severe damage to the German Baltic coast. Effective adaptation scenarios to rising sea levels are therefore becoming increasingly urgent. In two recent ...

600 Years of Tree Rings Reveal Climate Risks in California

Nov. 29, 2023 — The San Joaquin Valley in California has experienced vast variability in climate extremes, with droughts and floods that were more severe and lasted longer than what has been seen in the modern ...

Coastal River Deltas Threatened by More Than Climate Change

Nov. 20, 2023 — Worldwide, coastal river deltas are home to more than half a billion people, supporting fisheries, agriculture, cities, and fertile ecosystems. In a unique study covering 49 deltas globally, ...

Idai Vs. Impalas: New Study Shows in Real-Time What Helps Mammals Survive a Natural Disaster

Nov. 17, 2023 — After a massive cyclone transformed the ecosystem of Gorongosa National Park, researchers studied the immediate and knock-on impacts to garner lessons for wildlife managers around the ...

How Mega-Floods Can Be Predicted

Nov. 10, 2023 — Extreme flood events are extraordinary outliers that were not considered possible on the basis of local data. However, if one considers the entire European continent, these local surprises are no ...

New Method to Analyze Implications of Large-Scale Flood Adaptation

Oct. 25, 2023 — In a test of their new analysis tool, researchers show where 'moving up' or 'moving over' may make the most sense for those affected by the 2022 Pakistan flood, and what costs it ...

Researchers Study One of the World's Darkest Rivers

Oct. 18, 2023 — They set out to study the Congo Basin's carbon cycle and in the process have become aware of one of the world's darkest blackwater rivers: the Ruki. In the first study on this major jungle ...

Rising Seas Will Tighten Vise on Miami Even for People Who Are Not Flooded, Says Study

Oct. 16, 2023 — A new study that examines both the physical and socioeconomic effects of sea-level rise on Florida's Miami-Dade County area finds that in coming decades, four out of five residents may face ...

Flooding That Closed Alaska's Dalton Highway Also Caused Widespread Ground Sinking

Oct. 11, 2023 — The massive 2015 flooding of the Sagavanirktok River in northern Alaska had immediate impacts, including closure of the Dalton Highway for several days, but it also contributed to longer-term ground ...

Microplastics Are Found in Cave Water and Sediment

Sep. 27, 2023 — Researchers report finding high concentrations of microplastics present in a Missouri cave system that had been closed to human visitors for 30 ...

100-Year Floods Could Occur Yearly by End of 21st Century

Sep. 13, 2023 — Most coastal communities will encounter '100-year floods' annually by the end of the century, even under a moderate scenario where carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2040, according to a new ...

New Rivers in the North? Scientists Identify How the Dissection of Arctic Landscapes Is Changing With Accelerating Climate Change

Sep. 12, 2023 — New research shows that amplified global warming in the Canadian High Arctic drove a profound shift in the structure of a river network carved into a permafrost landscape in only 60 ...

New Super-Fast Flood Model Has Potentially Life-Saving Benefits

Sep. 12, 2023 — Researchers have developed a new simulation model, which can predict flooding during an ongoing disaster more quickly and accurately than currently ...

Study Reveals Human Destruction of Global Floodplains

Sep. 8, 2023 — A hydrologist's study provides a global estimate of human destruction of natural floodplains. The study can help guide future development in a way that can restore and conserve vital floodplain ...

Disparities in Who Dwells Behind Crumbling US Levees

Sep. 5, 2023 — In the United States, tens of millions of people live behind levees, but historically disadvantaged groups are more likely to live behind subpar levees and have fewer resources to maintain critical ...