Floods
Floods can happen almost anywhere. Rivers are the main agent, so big river systems draining large drainage basins are most hazardous. The key concept at rivers which is helpful to understand flooding is the floodplain.
The repetition of flooding in the Red River basin is mostly due to its topographic setting (wide floodplain) and geologic history, as illustrated in this image. Made with data from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM), the image shows ground elevation in shades of green, tan, and white. Low-elevation areas are green, while higher elevation regions are tan and white.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using SRTM data provided courtesy of the University of Maryland’s Global Land Cover Facility. Caption courtesy NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, edited by Holli Riebeek. The full caption is available on the JPL Photojournal page.
Rivers
USGS Real Time Data for Rivers
River Systems; Process and Form
Teaching Floods And Flooding Quantitatively
USGS Current Water Data for the Nation
http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt
Monthly Report of River and Flood Conditions September 2008
http://www.crh.noaa.gov/Image/grr/hydro/200809E5.pdf
City of Kalamazoo Flood Hazard Mitigation Map
http://www.ci.kalamazoo.mi.us/docs/FloodHazardMitigationPlan.pdf
Photo Galleries of the September 2008 Flood in Kalamazoo, Michigan
http://www.x98ruhf.net/kalamazoo_flood.html
Atlantic Hurricane Season 2008
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/lib1/nhclib/mwreviews/2008Atlantic_HurricaneSummary.pdf
Flood Inundations Kalamazoo River--USGS
