[Floods and public health: a review of the recent scientific literature on the causes, consequences and responses to prevention and mitigation]

Abstract

Floods are among the most frequent natural disasters and they affect the lives of approximately 102 million people each year, mainly in developing countries and in major urban areas with a tendency to grow further over the coming decades. The scope of this paper is to provide input for a clearer understanding of these events through the results and experiences to be gleaned from the recent scientific literature. From the Pubmed database, 70 articles were analyzed that fulfilled the criteria to address at least one of the items selected for analysis, namely: 1) causes; 2) consequences; 3) responses and actions: submission of proposals and solutions for the prevention and/or mitigation of the risks and impacts of flooding. Tables for each of the items selected were organized in order to systematize and synthesize the results for causes (attributed to natural and human activities); environmental, infrastructure and services, and health consequences (injuries and diseases classified according to chapters of ICD-10); prevention and mitigation responses and actions. It was concluded that given the scenarios of increased frequency and severity of these events, the challenges facing public health for disaster risk reduction require integrated responses with broad policies for sustainable development.