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Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management pp 669–676Cite as

Natural Hazards: Floods

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Definition

Floods refer to rising or overflowing of water from its normal course that temporarily or permanently inundates an area that is usually dry (White 1945).

Introduction

Floods are the first kind of hazard studied in the field of disaster social sciences. White (1945) was the first to shift the scientific focus from the physical dimension of floods to the social dimension in terms of response capacity. According to Tobin and Montz (2011), a social approach to hazard studies is needed because the geophysical sciences are unable to understand the level of exposure of the people who are at risk; therefore, consideration of the social dimension of a disaster is lacking. White (1945) is credited with the disaster approach (see “Natural Hazards”) that tries to define central concepts, such as disasters, risks, vulnerability, and resilience. His work challenged the idea that hazard studies are the most competent of the scientific disciplines. The geophysical focus on a specific...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SAGAS, Università degli studi di Firenze, Florence, Italy

    Sara Bonati

Authors
  1. Sara Bonati
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Correspondence to Sara Bonati .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Security, Fire, and Emergency Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Lauren R. Shapiro

  2. Department of Security, Fire, and Emergency Management, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York, New York, NY, USA

    Marie-Helen Maras

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Bonati, S. (2021). Natural Hazards: Floods. In: Shapiro, L.R., Maras, MH. (eds) Encyclopedia of Security and Emergency Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-70488-3_104

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