ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: This chapter explores a number of issues concerned with urban flooding. It firstly examines the broad problems of rural and urban flooding before focusing on the classification of the different types of urban watercourse, from major rivers to sewers to minor streams, found in urban areas. Secondly, the paper explores in depth the impact of runoff in contributing to flood risk in urban areas, providing both a broad discussion and a specific investigation of flow processes in water bodies. Section four expands on the issue of runoff by providing on overview of the influence of land use on urban flood risk. Sections five and six attempt to link the information discussed thus far by examining the different types of flood event that these runoff regimes, flow processes and land uses may create and introduces two brief case studies describing how cities in the UK have suffered from flooding. It concludes that unwisemanagement practices and climate change are exacerbating urban flooding and that there is a need for a holistic approach towards improving our understanding of the complexities of urban flood risk.
