Why do floods occur?
Environment Agency Wales
December 2010

Use the Environment Agency and Met Office web sites to complete the activities

Make notes on the different types of flooding.
Activity 1
Navigate the Environment Agency pages below and choose one site on a river near you. You may do this from a map or from the name of the river. Draw a line graph of the height of the river over a week. Follow Met office/ BBC forecasts and rainfall for your local region/river. Mark on your graph periods when it rained in the week. What is the relationship? What is the delay time?
Activity 2
During a period of rain, use the EA web site to choose a river that has many gauging stations and work out how long it takes for the rainfall in the upper reaches to have an effect on the river height lower downstream. What affects the movement of water through the drainage basin?
Activity 3