Effects floods have on social, economic and environmental structure

Economic Effect:

There are many reasons as to why floods cause economic effects in a nation, however there 5 major ones are these are: 

• Can destroy large amounts of crop i.e a banana crop making banana prices soar
• Temporary decline in Tourism - hotels, attractions could be destroyed 
• Rebuilding costs - rebuilding major infrastructure i.e trains, railways, docks, homes and business
• Federal & State budgets - emergency payments for flood victims and money devote to the regrowth of the town or city
• GDP growth falling - if a nation like Australia depends on mining, if for a month or two mining ceased in one of the major areas it would effect our economy greatly.

Although many people think of floods as all negative but there are a few positive impacts floods have on the environment.

A positive is that the water from the floods can spread silt and sediment that contains rich minerals and nutrients which have been washed down. This improves the fertility of the land.

But there are mostly negative impacts like:

• Loss of habitat for both plant and animal life, which causes a reducation of biodiversity in the area, and may cause some species to become endangered.
• Severe erosion and destabilisation of the soil and hillsides.
• As rivers flood, they carry huge amounts of rubbish, debris and other forms of pollution down to the river mouth, where they empty out into the sea. This can be devastating for the marine life there.

Social impacts of floods

Loss of lives and property: Immediate impacts of flooding include loss of human life, damage to property, destruction of crops, loss of livestock, non-functioning of infrastructure facilities and deterioration of health condition owing to waterborne diseases..

 Loss of livelihoods: People loose communication links and infrastructure. Some of these things are as power plants, roads and bridges are damaged and disrupted. Life changes for the normal person, everything is gone.

Decreased purchasing and production power: Damage to infrastructure. This also causes long-term impacts, such as disruptions to clean water and electricity, transport, communication.

Mass migration: Frequent flooding, resulting in loss of livelihoods, production and other prolonged economic impacts and types of suffering can trigger mass migration or population displacement.

Psychosocial effects: The huge psychological effects on flood victims and their families can traumatize them for long periods of time. The loss of loved ones can generate deep impacts, especially on children.

 
By Josh Chapman, Josh Cutrone and Tim Wells