Mitigating River Flooding By Working With Nature
April 7, 2025
Unrelenting rains across the US South and Midwest are causing numerous rivers to flood, and more damage is likely to come, the AP reports. Drawing lessons from previous floods, Richard A. Haeuber and William K. Michener describe in Issues how federal, state, and local governments can mitigate risks. The key, the authors propose, will be to work with the forces of nature, instead of simply trying to eliminate them. Rehabilitating the floodplains surrounding rivers will be critical, which will require protecting and often restoring these natural buffer zones along with limiting and sometimes relocating homes and businesses built in them.