I am going to discuss two case studies regarding floods. One of my case studies is of Cocker mouth, this is a town in England exposed to floods this is my case study of an MEDC. My other case study is the LEDC in which I talk about Bangladesh. Cocker mouth is situated in the Lake District in England. England is an MEDC and this area experienced vast ranges of flooding during late November. The town lies among the confluence of two rivers that leave it prone to flooding. The two rivers are the Derwent and Cocker. 320mm of rainfall fell in under 24 hours and this was a predicted fall which took the town by surprise. The River Cocker burst its banks after a 2.5 metre rise in the river water level; this was a major contribution to the flooding as well as the poor preparation of the towns flood defences.
Bangladesh is an LEDC bordering the Indian Ocean and it lies at the forefront of the Ganges Delta. The country is low – lying and most of its land is 12m below sea level. Floods here have recently become stronger. During the arrival of Cyclone Aila flood waters burst the delta causing storm surges of 10 metres!
The floods in both Carlisle and Bangladesh caused a lot of problems for both areas. However in contrast, the MEDC (Carlisle) suffered less from the consequences, whereas, the LEDC (Bangladesh) was affected much worse. Heavy rainfall of 200mm fell over Carlisle in a 36 hour period. The constant rainfall increased runoff because soil became saturated, this runoff ended up flowing into the river Eden. Because Carlisle is a largely urban area, concrete ground made from impermeable materials meant that surface runoff increased. There was a lot of discharge from the River Eden which reached 1520 cumecs. In contrast the Bangladeshi volume of precipitation was much higher so the floods were much worse. Very heavy rainfall amounting to 900mm fell over the month of July. Soils all over Bangladesh became saturated, this increased