Flooding and Flood Modeling in a Typhoon Belt Environment: The Case of the Philippines

Flooding is a perennial world-wide problem and is a serious hazard in areas where the amount of precipitable water has potential to dump excessive amount of water. The warming of the Earth's climate due to the increase in greenhouse gases (GHGs) increases the availability of water vapor and hence, of extreme precipitation as observed and forecasted by researchers. With rainfall intensity too high, the torrential rains coupled with weather systems that enhances its effects, flooding not only submerges anything low-lying, it also washes away living and non-living things along the course of the river and the floodplain. The flooding is even worsened by the increase in velocity of flow caused by unsustainable urbanization and denudation of the watershed at the headwaters. Nature's strength is an order of a magnitude that is way beyond that of the strength of men but human ingenuity enables us to transform our living environment into models that could help us better understand it. Flood modeling provides us decision support tools to deal better with nature. It also enables us to simulate the future especially nowadays that changes in our climate is imminent and even happening already in many parts of the world. Therefore, strategies on how to cope with our ever changing environment is very important particularly to countries that are at more risk to climate change such as the archipelagic Philippines.