Floodplains Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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As rivers extend from high areas to the lower lakes or seas, they pick up silt or alluvium and deposit it further downstream. The flow of water tends to decelerate as the amount of alluvial material increases, and because the slope along which the river flows tends to flatten. Depending on the kind of ground through which the river moves, the water may continue downcutting into the ground, or else build up the floor and walls of the river through alluvial deposits. Where the latter occurs, a floodplain may be created in which the river flows laterally and covers the land during times of high flow. In these cases, the flat floodplain can be rapidly flooded and thereby bring about large-scale displacement and drowning of people and livestock, and considerable

devastation. The country of Bangladesh, in particular, suffers from the regular flooding of the dozens of rivers that criss-cross the country coming from the Himalayan Mountains to the north. Floods kill thousands, and millions are made homeless or marooned for extended periods of time.

The propensity of rivers to flood their plains in northern and central China has led not only to unknown millions of deaths, but also to the creation of immense engineering projects aimed at controlling the flow of water and providing irrigation for large-scale agricultural activities. This control of water has enabled the Chinese state to create and sustain a civilization lasting millennia. However, such engineering prowess has not been available to all states, due to to geographical reasons. The interaction between the variables that influence the flow of a river can lead to a very diverse range of floodplain surface development, buildup of vegetation, and the creation of natural, although often temporary levees.

The deposits of alluvial material, together with flooding, can create fertile land that is very valuable for agriculture, and can extend over very wide areas. The Mississippi floodplain, for example, extends up to 80 miles across and has an estimated total land area exceeding 50,000 sqare miles. Since flooding erodes existing topographical features and deposits soil in low-lying areas, the floodplain becomes increasingly flattened, which extends the reach of the floodplain and makes it easier to work for agricultural purposes. For many millions of people, the river and floodplain close to where they live represents both the source of their livelihood and the most likely threat to that livelihood.

Changing patterns of weather associated with global climate change and the unpredictability of emergent weather phenomena mean that the threat of flooding may be exacerbated in the future, and may affect even some of those floodplains for which adequate river management precautions have been put in place. The flooding of New Orleans as a result of Hurricane Katrina demonstrates the vulnerability of even one of the most technologically advanced societies in the world. The costs of designing and executing the engineering projects necessary to pacify rivers with the potential to flood are already enormous. Many states have sought to tame the rivers through the use of dams, which have the additional benefit of generating hydroelectric power. However, the justice of upstream-dwelling people restricting the flow of a resource on which perhaps millions of downstream-dwelling people rely (as in the case for example of the Mekong) is highly contested.

Bibliography:

Paul A. DeBarry, Watersheds: Processes, Assessment and Management (John Wiley, 2003);
S. Bridge, Rivers and Floodplains: Forms, Processes and Sedimentary Record (Blackwell Publishing Limited, 2003);
Mursaleena Islam and John Braden, “Bio-Economic Development of Floodplains: Farming versus Fishing in Bangladesh,” Environment and Development Economics (v.11/1, 2006).