Word: flood-control
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...changing topography is befuddling flood-control planners and straining the complex system of dams, reservoirs and levees along major waterways like the Brazos. The Texas floods were inevitable because of the size of the downpour that fell on an already soaked region. But their destructiveness was multiplied when runoffs from unexpected points turned quiet creeks into torrents. In Brazoria County, Oyster Creek flooded and combined with the Brazos to create a lake nine miles wide and up to 50 ft. deep...
Like other recent deluges, this one raised questions about the value of flood-control measures. Some experts believe that straightening small tributaries and lining them with concrete for stability only compounds flood problems by moving water faster. "The water down below doesn't get a chance to get out of the way before the other water is there on top of it," observes Fred Liscum, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. Levees built to protect towns can also restrict river flow, which in turn can force the waterway to crest and wash out the barriers on either bank. Says...
Restorationists make use of the annual floods that stimulate the growth of riverine forests, flush out wetlands and rejuvenate them with fertile silt. Deprived of high-water surges, wetlands quickly die. In the 1960s, for example, flood-control canals transformed South Florida's wild Kissimmee River from a sinuous network of oxbows and tributaries into a stagnant ditch. The disastrous result: nearly 18,200 hectares (45,000 acres) of prime wetlands disappeared. Waterfowl and fish populations plummeted. Last year, in a startling about-face, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the South Florida Water Management District proposed to unleash...
...keep the Everglades alive. The water that replenishes the marshland once spilled out of Lake Okeechobee in a shallow sheet 50 miles wide, moving slowly south for 180 miles before emptying into Florida Bay. But since the mid-1960s, the lake overflow has been channeled through a massive flood-control project -- 1,400 miles of canals and hydraulic pumps that can drain a field or rush water to urban centers on command. Using computers, engineers now try to mimic the natural flow into the park. If water levels fluctuate even by a matter of inches, the ecology of the Everglades...
...people are shot when a group of desperate families raids a flood-control embankment. The wounded raiders are seeking to drain the water from their suburban Bangkok district; the gunman is protecting his dryer neighborhood. Elsewhere in the sodden Thai city, slumdwellers stage boat races in water fouled with raw sewage, and medical teams distribute antityphoid vaccine and foot-fungus ointment. It is monsoon season in Southeast Asia, and as this year's rains have made all too obvious, Bangkok (pop. 5.5 million) is slowly sinking...