The Water Cycle
The stage where water changes from liquid to vapor.
What is Evaporation?
Flooding that happens when low-lying land is submerged by sea water, often due to storm surge.
What is a coastal flood?
This type can take a week to develop and last for months.
What is a slow-onset flood?
Using dams and levees to control water.
What is water management?
The lines dividing areas with similar temperature and rainfall.
What are climate zones?
Water vapor cooling to form clouds.
What is condensation?
Flooding that occurs when rivers break their banks.
What is a riverine flood?
Develops within hours or days; waters usually recede quickly
What is a rapid-onset flood?
Moving communities to higher ground
What is relocation?
National-scale maps showing rainfall distribution.
What is the Australian rainfall pattern?
Water falling as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.
What is precipitation?
The most sudden flood type, developing within minutes to hours.
What is a flash flood?
Forms within minutes to hours, often from intense thunderstorms.
What is a flash flood?
Buying back properties in flood-prone areas to reduce future damage
What is a buy-back scheme?
On which side of a mountain do winds drop most of their moisture?
What is the windward side?
Water soaking into the ground to refill aquifers.
What is infiltration?
Name two common causes of riverine floods.
What are heavy rainfall or dam releases?
This flood type can be predicted when water levels rise gradually over several days.
What is a slow-onset flood?
These raised structures along rivers are built to contain rising water and protect nearby land.
What are levees?
The drier area downwind of mountains caused by this process.
What is a rain shadow?
If rainfall exceeds infiltration and evaporation, this is the likely outcome.
What is flooding?
This flood type develops suddenly in urban areas when drainage systems can’t cope with heavy rain.
What is a flash flood?
Order these by speed (fastest → slowest): rapid-onset, slow-onset, flash.
What is flash → rapid-onset → slow-onset?
In the Decision-Making Matrix, this criterion considers how expensive or cheap a flood-prevention strategy will be.
What is the economic criterion?
A town on the leeward side of a coastal mountain range records far less rain than nearby coastal towns despite moist onshore winds, due to this climate process.
What is the rain shadow effect?