Bangladesh and boscastle floods

I had to cover this in my Geography finals… Here are the main differences between these two significantly damaging flood disasters:

1. Bangladesh flooding is much more a result of human impacts upon the environment than Boscastle flooding. The flooding in Bangladesh escalates to a significant threat usually because up at higher-altitude Nepal, the developing country’s dependence upon tourism to boost its economy causes large scale deforestation of the mountainous region’s trees - for firewood in tourist hotels. The vegetation as I’m sure you’ll already know, helps soak up the flood water from the rains that the saturated clouds produce up in these mountains. Without help from the cut-away forests, the flood water leaves Nepal and travels down to Bangladesh through swollen / flooded river tributaries. The results can be terrible for completely-flat landed Bangladesh, though they have their flooding precautions / emergency procedures.

2. Small point to make, but valid – Bangladesh is a Less Economically Developed country (LEDC), whilst obviously, the UK, where Boscastle is situated, is an MEDC (More Economically Developed).

3. Unlike Boscastle, the flooding is practically going to be annual for Bangladesh every year (remember that the rains in the mountains are annual/seasonal). However, I wouldn’t stress this point a lot in an exam, since Boscastle’s floods -are- caused by torrential rains up in higher regions too - it’s just that there appears a lesser guarantee that a large flooding will occur in Boscastle -every- year. The combination of the deforestation increasing flood risks, and rising sea levels due to global warming (which also floods the country and it’s crops with salt-water) may remain in the future, an ever-increasing issue if not enough is done to aid Bangladesh.

And the similarities…

1. Topographically-speaking, both Bangladesh and Boscastle are lower-altitude regions. In fact, the two flood disasters are similar in that they both have heavy rains occur in higher altitudes which then travel downwards to them and cause flooding.

2. Bangladesh and Boscastle are both situated close to the sea. They both have rivers / tributaries that course through them on their way to the sea – the flood waters use these very much like ‘highways’ – hence why they are very prone to becoming flooded.

3. There is an element of similarity between the 2 case studies as well when you look at the natural carrying capacities of the higher altitude land above both areas. In Boscastle for example, the higher up region (Exmoor) gets heavily rained upon frequently in certain seasons, and the moors soak it all up like a sponge. But only until the 100% saturation point is reached. After that, the water will simply seep down entering rivers / tributaries that unfortunately, for Boscastle, happen to exist right next to the settlement. These floods (especially in Boscastle’s case) can be very quick to strike. I believe the last major Boscastle flood occurred at night-time when no-one was awake to see it coming in the first place. In areas, the mud and water was so deep it actually reached the ceilings of some cottages.

There are more points I’m sure that will add to these 2 case studies and what’s similar / different about them, but that is really the gist of it.

I visited poor old Boscastle on holiday a couple months after it’s last big flood - they’d already salvaged / rebuilt practically most of the settlement; although one major attraction in particular - Boscastle’s famous Witch museum, had lost a lot of ancient artefacts in the flood :( There are now human flood management plans in motion for the protection of Boscastle and Bangladesh. It might be worthwhile to say here that, being a developing country, Bangladesh’s flood protection plans are going to be lower technology developments than what you may expect to find in an MEDC, such as where we know Boscastle is situated.

On a side note; Boscastle isn’t the only settlement ‘below’ Exmoor in the UK that has suffered devastating floods for the same reasons – if my memory serves me correctly, check out the Lynmouth flooding case studies for a bit of further research.