Damages from Floods are Increasing
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The Graph
“Climate change–driven changes in precipitation amount and duration, snowpack/snowmelt, and soil moisture have combined with land-cover change and increasing property values to increase overall economic damages from floods…
Heavier rainfall, combined with changes in land use and other factors such as soil moisture and snow, is leading to increasing flood damage … All communities will be affected, but in particular those on the frontline of climate change—including many Black, Hispanic, Tribal, Indigenous, and socioeconomically disadvantaged communities—face growing risks from changes to water quantity and quality due to the proximity of their homes and workplaces to hazards and limited access to resources and infrastructure …
…Increasing flood activity threatens water quality and ecosystems…. As floodwaters inundate normally dry areas, they transport debris, chemicals, bacteria, and other contaminants … Heavy precipitation events are overwhelming aging combined stormwater–sewer systems, leading to discharges of contaminated water and raw sewage into receiving waters… The upward trajectory of urban flooding impacts will likely continue with changing rainfall patterns and intensity… Groundwater-sourced drinking water is becoming contaminated from standing floodwaters over wellheads and percolation into well-fields,… and in farmlands high runoff is discharging fertilizer into streams and lakes, causing harmful algal blooms…”
USGCRP, 2023: Fifth National Climate Assessment. Crimmins, A.R., C.W. Avery, D.R. Easterling, K.E. Kunkel, B.C. Stewart, and T.K. Maycock, Eds. U.S. Global Change Research Program, Washington, DC, Chapter 4, Figure 4_12. 2USA. https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA5.2023
