Flood Control Program Research Articles

Broken Levees, Broken Lives, and a Broken Nation after Hurricane Katrina

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Many people viewed the extreme disorder after Hurricane Katrina as the failure of a comprehensive system of public works and emergency preparedness they assumed was designed to ensure safety and security. No such system exists. The national flood control program began in the late nineteenth century as a series of engineering projects intended to promote economic development and to unify the nation's territory after western expansion and then Civil War. Its public safety protections were limited to partial levee lines in a few cities west of the Appalachian range. As the urgency to integrate territory passed, national unification faded as a justification for the flood control program, and Congress focused on approving engineering projects to promote economic development in specific locations. Concern about public safety from the 1950s on motivated thousands of individual federal projects to create or increase protection in urban and suburban areas, including hurricane levees near New Orleans. (1) Despite decades of building levees and floodways, the grand goals of prosperity and national integration, as well as public safety, have been only partially realized for the lower Mississippi Valley. Hurricane Katrina made this quite clear. Re-engineering our country's rivers through the federal flood control program has in some ways made us less safe. Since federal levee building began, the number of people near flood-prone areas along the lower Mississippi River and elsewhere in the country has increased dramatically, with African Americans in poverty, and other marginalized groups, often clustering in the most hazardous areas, thus prompting vast increases in property losses from river floods. The program's success so far is that while more people now live in floodplains, few die from river and rainstorm flooding. Yet a break in a major levee on a highly engineered river could push fast-flowing water into one of our cities with explosive force far greater than Katrina brought to New Orleans. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] New Orleans was and is a special case. Federal river and hurricane levees have prevented river silt from depositing, causing nearly all of the city's land to compact and sink below the normal water levels of the nearby Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain. The city must run pumping stations to remove water from its storm sewer system into drainage canals even after the slightest rainstorm. Katrina's storm surge broke federal hurricane levees and the federal- and city-built floodwalls and levees along drainage canals leading to the lake, easily flooding the city. Although the massive federal levees along the Mississippi River stayed intact during Katrina, these river levees did the most to make the city subside in the first place. The focus here is on the origins of the federal flood control program, which built all of the federal projects. Successive rounds of projects intended to improve the safety of New Orleans and other cities and suburbs have taxed a federal program created to extend farming onto floodplains and to block floods from key downstream port cities that shipped agricultural goods. (2) Providing for public safety requires legal or informal limitations on land use, vigilance, and emergency preparedness in settled areas. Providing for economic development does not. Tension between the goals of public safety and economic development has been left unresolved in the flood control program because within the federal system of government, legislators have little interest and limited leverage to create comprehensive, long-term plans for any area of policy. Additionally, national and state legislatures do not directly supervise the bureaucracies that administer government policies. So rather than reforming an agency's overall program when new needs emerge in a given area of policy, legislators systematically add the new tasks to the agency's docket. …

Rivers by design: state power and the origins of U.S. flood control

The United States has one of the largest and costliest flood control systems in the world, even though only a small proportion of its land lies in floodplains. Rivers by Design traces the emergence of the mammoth U.S. flood management system, which is overseen by the federal government but implemented in conjunction with state governments and local contractors and levee districts. Karen M. O’Neill analyzes the social origins of the flood control program, showing how the system initially developed as a response to the demands of farmers and the business elite in outlying territories. The configuration of the current system continues to reflect decisions made in the nineteenth century and early twentieth. It favors economic development at the expense of environmental concerns. O’Neill focuses on the creation of flood control programs along the lower Mississippi River and the Sacramento River, the first two rivers to receive federal flood control aid. She describes how, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, planters, shippers, and merchants from both regions campaigned for federal assistance with flood control efforts. She explains how the federal government was slowly and reluctantly drawn into water management to the extent that, over time, nearly every river in the United States was reengineered. Her narrative culminates in the passage of the national Flood Control Act of 1936, which empowered the Army Corps of Engineers to build projects for all navigable rivers in conjunction with local authorities, effectively ending nationwide, comprehensive planning for the protection of water resources.

Architectures of Memory

Cities, write Lawrence Vale and Thomas Campanella, are among humankind’s most durable artifacts.1 They are also among its most vulnerable spaces, subject to the destructive forces of nature, war, disease, and terror, all of which are mediated and magnified by the structural violence of racism, sectarian exclusion, and exploitation. As I write, on an early September day in balmy southern California, a distance of nearly two thousand miles separates me from the devastation of New Orleans. In a few keystrokes, however, I am a witness to the floods and corpses, to the looters and evacuees, to an irate mayor and to more than a few befuddled federal officials. I am hopeful that, by the time this issue of The Public Historian has been released, the worst of the devastation will have been contained and basic services restored to that city, though the downsizing of our government does not give me comfort. For now, I can only ponder the forms that New Orleans’ resilience might take. Are there lessons to be drawn from the aftermath of the similarly destructive 1927 flood, which led to federal flood control programs? How will the environmental history of the Gulf be engaged in the next round of regional planning? Of the tens of thousands of displaced residents, disproportionately poor and African American, how many will return? Who, among the many families, partners, and friends torn from each other, will be reconnected? How will the survivors mourn their losses? And how will New Orleans’ dispersed residents remember their city?

Why the TVA Remains Unique: Interest Groups and the Defeat of New Deal River Planning*

Abstract Although scholars cite the Tennessee Valley Authority as one of President Franklin Roosevelt's major reform programs, the valley authority model did not replace the limited‐purpose water programs of the Bureau of Reclamation and the Army Corps of Engineers. State‐centered theorists hold that reformers are most likely to succeed during periods such as the New Deal era, when they are supported by a democratized polity and when they dominate Congress and the administration. This paper shows that in river policy, the strength of opposing interest groups also mattered. The TVA bill was passed in 1933 because reformers skillfully coordinated action at potential choke points and weakened the already disorganized opposing lobbyists. In 1936, however, after regrouping, opposing river lobbyists and legislators took advantage of the New Dealers' spending mood by expanding the Corps' flood control program. They also helped defeat further valley authorities, the most promising of the New Deal water policy reforms.

Plans Can Matter! The Role of Land Use Plans and State Planning Mandates in Limiting the Development of Hazardous Areas

requirementsfor local planning. Year in and year out the nation experiences an estimated $20 billion in losses from natural disasters (National Research Council, 1991). The conventional ways of dealing with that problem are to limit the hazard (e.g., flood control programs), limit buildings' susceptibility to damage (e.g., wind, flood, and earthquake provisions of building codes), and limit individuals' and communities' exposure to financial loss (e.g., insurance and disaster relief). Each of those approaches has received strong support in federal legislation, some of it dating back more than 55 years; but, the annual toll of losses has not declined appreciably, because every year more and more people and property are placed at risk (L. R. Johnston Associates, 1992).

Flood and CSO Control Tanks: The Experience in the City of Nagoya

Topographical features of the City of Nagoya, characterized by flat land and hills in the eastern part, make storm drainage and flood control particularly important in this urban region. In the provision of land drainage, small and medium rivers in the City play an important role, but they generally lack adequate hydraulic capacity. Furthermore, there are sewered areas in the city where the local topography, characterized by depressions or sudden breaks in surface slopes between flat and inclining planes cause local flooding and water ponding. Consequently, the city has adopted a flood control program comprising construction of storage tanks in the areas susceptible to flooding, or where the hydraulic capacity of rivers is unreliable. The main concepts of this program include the construction of a variety of storage tanks designed to suit the local flood protection requirements. Scarcity of construction sites makes effective land utilization mandatory, so storage tanks are designed as facilities with dual functions serving as both flood and combined sewer overflow (CSO) controls, and, whenever feasible, the storage tanks are designed and implemented in conjunction with the existing facilities.

バングラデシュ北西部の地形・洪水特性からみた水害対策計画の問題点

The World Bank has made “Bangladesh Action Plan for Flood Control” which consists of 26 components after severe floods of 1987 and 1988. Japanese and UK governments donate the Component No.2, for Northwest Region. The author attended the preliminary study in 1990 as a geomorphologist and found some problems on flood mitigation projects related with characteristics of landform and flood feature.The northwest region is divided into the following four geomorphological units: 1) Barind Tract, 2) the Himalayan piedmont plains, 3) the Alluvial lowland along the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and 4) the Alluvial lowland along the Ganges. The embankments are frequently broken by floods because river beds are unstable in the Himalayan piedmont plains. In the alluvial lowland along the B.-Jamuna, the river channels are unstable and change their courses frequently during annual floods with breaching embankments, since the B.-Jamuna changed its course in the 18th century. In the alluvial lowland along the Ganges, distinct large natural levees have developed along the Ganges and a broad back-marsh area lies along the lower Atrai Basin. The “Polder Project” for flood protection is progressing in the lower Atrai Basin. However, each polder is too broad to protect the whole area. In order to protect their houses, people often cut embankments for draining inundation water not only from inside of the polder to river, but also from outside of the polder into the protected area.In the Flood Action Plan, the World Bank proposed two major projects in this area, namely, an interceptor drain from the Upper Atrai into the B.-Jamuna, and a diversion channel from the Lower Atrai into the Ganges. The main technical problem on both the Interceptor and the Diversion channel is the water level at the outfalls. The Interceptor is proposed along the Karatoya-Atrai, a heavy free-meandered river. The Interceptor needs high embankments whole from the Atrai to the B.-Jamuna. The Diversion channel is less feasible ; since the river bed of the Atrai is lower than that of the Ganges.Apart from these major projects, the author suggests smaller but reasonable projects for this area. In the southern part, the Polder Project is to be improved: smaller units of polders with consideration of geomorphological setting and local land-use conditions. A comprehensive project which contains both structural and non-structural methods for flood control and rural development programs as waterside district will support the development of this area.

Public Perception of the Risks of Floods: Implications for Communication

Floods in the U.S. kill an average of 162 people each year and cause $3.4 billion in property damage. Flood control programs have been successful in lowering, but not eliminating, the risks to lives and property. Since the late 1960s, the federal government has emphasized flood insurance as a primary tool for improving location and flood-proofing decisions, as well as for reimbursing flood losses. Since only 12.7% of houses in flood plain areas are covered by flood insurance, the program has been ineffective. We interviewed people living in three communities that had recently been flooded. Most people had little knowledge of the cause of floods or what could be done to prevent damage. People who work and who are better educated know more and are more likely to have flood insurance. Current government publications about flood risks are not likely to be understood by those at risk. There is little effective communication about the nature and magnitude of the risks and what individuals can do to protect their lives and property and lower their financial risks. The risk management program should both emphasize communication and enforcement of the current law requiring people at risk who hold federally funded loans to be insured.

FLOODPLAIN MANAGEMENT NEEDS PECULIAR TO ARID CLIMATES1

ABSTRACT: Many practices followed uniformly nationwide in the federal flood control and floodplain management programs are inappropriate or even counter productive in the arid Utah climate. An analysis of the 130‐year Utah flood history, the structural and nonstructural flood programs in the state, and local perceptions obtained by field visits and interviews in 35 Utah communities revealed a number of such inefficiencies. Since flood flows dissipate quickly when they emerge from mountain watersheds onto desert lowlands, risks are concentrated near the apex of alluvial fans, include hazard from mud as well as water flow, and are compounded by canal interception of flood waters. Because of variation in the area flooded from one event to the next, floodplain mapping has tended to show risks too high in mapped areas and too low outside. Traditional channelization carries floods downstream past where they would dissipate naturally. The federal government needs to become more active in developing better flood hazard delineation and structural and nonstructural designs for arid areas. State government can help by providing a forum where communities can exchange experiences, reviewing structural designs prepared by local government, and providing local communities with technical expertise for dealing with federal agencies.

Integrating ecological and social considerations into urban flood control programs

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.

Geologic aspects of the Chicagoland flood control and pollution abatement program. Conference. Abstaact : Larusso, R Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Wheby, F Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Acker, R Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Proc. 1st N. Amer. Rapid Excav. Tunnelling Conf. Chicago, June 1972, AIME, V.2, 1972, P1089

Geologic aspects of the Chicagoland flood control and pollution abatement program. Conference. Abstaact : Larusso, R Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Wheby, F Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Acker, R Harza Engng Co. Chicago, Ill. USA Proc. 1st N. Amer. Rapid Excav. Tunnelling Conf. Chicago, June 1972, AIME, V.2, 1972, P1089

State Flood-Plain Management Activities

Although billions of dollars have been spent for the control of floods, it has been amply demonstrated that, on a nationwide basis, the effort to reduce flood damages is being lost. The flood control program's inability to maintain its early advantage is primarily attributable to rapidly increasing development on flood plain lands. The Tennessee Valley Authority pioneered the comprehensive flood damage prevention concept, portions of which have served as models for later endeavors by various states. Activities by 10 selected states in flood plain identification and management are cited as examples of the concept's past and continuing evolution. Most active state efforts are oriented toward providing adequate identification of flood plains and assisting local entities in implementing appropriate management of designated flood hazard areas. Technical, administrative, and legal problems are noted, as well as similarities to other social and economic needs of society.

Closure to “Hydrologic Influences of a Flood Control Program”

Closure to “Hydrologic Influences of a Flood Control Program”

Hydrologic Influences of a Flood Control Program

The agricultural flood prevention program on Sugar Creek, a tributary to the Washita River in Oklahoma, reduced flood peaks by more than 50%. The recession portion of hydrographs were lengthened. The structures reduced the infiltration on the flood plain by reducing flood peaks. The recession flow was increased by the number of detention reservoirs.

The Floodplain and the Seashore: A Comparative Analysis of Hazard-Zone Occupance

HE United States is in danger today of embarking on a large-scale and costly program of coastal defense against storm hazard comparable with the program of flood control that has been operating in river valleys for the past quarter of a century. Federal legislation passed in 1936, and subsequently, has been largely the reason for the heavy investment in flood-control engineering works, to the neglect of possible alternatives. Yet appraisals of the flood-control program are in general agreement that despite federal expenditures of about five billion dollars, average annual damages from floods have continued to rise.' Nor is a brighter prospect held for the future. The Chief of Engineers stated in 1960 that at the present rate of expenditure flood protection will 'just about keep up with the increase in flood damage that may be anticipated by 1980 as a result of flood plain development over the next two decades.2 A repetition of the same course of action with respect to coastal flood problems seems likely. The storm of March 5-8, 1962,3 on the east coast of the United States (Fig. 1) focused attention on coastal storm damage. One informed official recently remarked that it seems unlikely Congress will be satisfied that it has done its duty by coastal constituents until an Atlantic Wall has been built from Maine to Mexico!

SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHY

The first real-time satellite photography of the earth was taken on April 1, 1960, when TIROS I, an experimental meteorological satellite, was launched from Cape Canaveral and took photos of the Gulf of St. Lawrence on its first orbit. This paper describes the satellite and its TV camera, discusses the combined U.S.-Canadian research project TIREC associated with it, and lists some of the uses of the satellite photographs that have been obtained — ice reconnaissance; cloud identification and heighting; spotting forest fires; applications to water resources, flood control, and conservation programs; prediction of locust swarms; and satellite photogrammetry for meteorological uses. The paper concludes with a description of the APT (automatic transmission system) used in TIROS VIII to give the first direct reception of a space picture in Canada.

The Fishery in Lake Wappapello, A Flood-Control Reservoir on the St. Francis River, Missouri

Abstract Lake Wappapello, an impoundment on the St. Francis River in southeastern Missouri, was created in 1941 by the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army, as part of the flood-control program for the lower Mississippi River. At conservation-pool level (355 feet, Mean Gulf Level) the reservoir has a surface area of approximately 6,000 acres and more than 50 percent of the lake is less than 5 feet deep. At times of high water the area may be expanded to 23,100 acres. Prompted by the decline in fishing success, particularly for black bass, the Missouri Conservation Commission launched a series of investigations in 1948. The results of 4 years of fish-population surveys made by means of nets, seines, and rotenone are presented. White crappie and carp consistently were the most abundant species in the nets. These fish constituted, respectively, 52 and 20 percent by number of the total net catch. Rotenone sampling in two small coves in 1951 indicated that the backwater areas support an average standing crop of 273 p...

The Flood Control Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

The Flood Control Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture

THE JOB OF THE GEOPHYSICIST

What Do Geophysicists Do? Geophysicists make use of the basic principles of physics, mathematics, engineering, geology, and chemistry, and of various geophysical methods in studying seismic, gravitational, electrical, magnetic, and elastic characteristics of the earth, and the structure and composition of its interior and surface, including the water areas and the atmosphere. They apply the knowledge thus obtained chiefly in prospecting for petroleum, gas, and minerals. A few are engaged in making highly precise maps and charts for navigation on sea, land, and air; predicting radio‐communication and atmospheric conditions; charting ocean currents; and developing water supply or flood control programs. Geophysicists are employed in two somewhat different branches: as prospectors with oil and mining companies, and as fundamental research or earth‐science geophysicists with Government agencies, or academic institutions.

The Agricultural Flood Control Program a Review of the Watershed Investigations and Reports

The Agricultural Flood Control Program a Review of the Watershed Investigations and Reports