Mega-floods in Africa: Report from the Dark Nature Workshop in Mozambique, November 2004
by
Sylvi Haldorsen
Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Dept. of Plants and Environmental Sciences
Coauthors: Mussa Achimo, Fatima Momade, Sebasitão I. Famba, Pamela Abouda, Yazidhi Bamutaze

Mega-floods are among the most common environmental catastrophes, and are of particular importantce for societies, because such a large part of the World's population live on floodplains. They are, however, often difficult to identify shortly after they have occurred. In contrast to some other kinds of climate-controlled catastrophes, they are not all caused by the same climatic situation. In African countries modern mega-floods have resulted in diseases and caused very large damages in cities and rural areas. Warning systems are often lacking. Historical and pre-historic data records are sparse, and the mechanisms that result in mega-floods are often poorly understood. This paper shows examples of mega-floods in East Africa, and focus on the need of data for pre-historic flood records.

Date received: July 25, 2005

Copyright © 2005 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caqy-63.