Jeddah’s Flood
On January 22, 2011 the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia was struck by a massive flood after a heavy rain that caused considerable damage, which produced direct and indirect tangible effects as follows:
Direct tangible effects, which amounted to impact on:
- (1) Individuals and families
- (2) Buildings and private dwellings
- (3) Buses, trucks, and cars
- (4) Tunnels
- (5) Bridges
Indirect effects:
- (1) Damage in billions of dollars
- (2) Massive traffic congestion in much of the city
- (3) Spreading of water-born and air-born diseases [involving “mosquitoes from lagoons”]
- (4) Closure of schools, and delay of employees traveling to work
Watch The Video
This video was captured during the flood and shows some of its damage.
How Can You Help?
In this approach, learners are asked to provide preventive solutions for the flooding so it will not cause the same destruction next time. Learners are expected to:
- (1) Generate hypotheses about what caused the flooding problem;
- (2) Set group goals and strategies for problem-solving;
- (3) Search for relevant resources, and test their hypotheses.
- (4) frame and model the flood problem using preliminary and final engineering designs for the surface runoff system, taking into account technical and general specifications.
The instructor will provide learners with on-time scaffolding to help them find and understand relevant resources to solve the problem.