Integrating ecological and social considerations into urban flood control programs

Abstract

A well‐planned flood control program requires integration of diverse sets of information to develop alternative remedial measures for public discussion and selection. Although procedures for the required hydrologic studies, engineering designs, and economic analyses are readily available, procedures for assessing effects on the natural environment and on social aspects are still being developed. This paper illustrates one approach to integrating all this information in comparing alternatives, using the Proctor Creek watershed in Atlanta, Georgia, as an example. The illustration begins with a program such as might be formulated by available planning methodology from hydrologic, economic, and engineering data. The illustration continues with suggestions on how to collect meaningful social suitability data from a questionnaire designed to document public perceptions and preferences, ecological data from natural areas in the floodplain, and data relating the effects of the floodplain land use to the well‐being of the community. A procedure for integrating these considerations with the established analyses into alternatives presented for public discussion and decision making is then illustrated. Suggestions are also made on how the selected flood control program can be most successfully implemented.