Mendel started the project after travelling to the UK, and then India to document the damage caused by floods a few weeks apart from each other. He was struck by the "contrasting effects of the flooding, and the shared vulnerability of their victims". He describes the project as "my attempt to explore the effects of climate change in an intimate way, taking us beyond faceless statistics and into the individual experiences of its victims." Since beginning the project, he has documented flood damage and the impact of people living in areas affected by floods in countries including Haiti, Pakistan, Australia, Thailand, Nigeria, Germany and the Philippines.