Water Information Center
Browse Topics
Water Supply & Sanitation
Water & Soil Remediation
Hydrologic Hazards
Water Quality in the Natural Environment
River Basin Systems
Environmental Assessment, Management, & Restoration
Water Science & Research
Drinking Water Basics
Water in Developing Nations
Hydrologic Hazards
Structural Approaches to Hazard Reduction
| There has been a long tradition of attempting to reduce flood losses [view report] in the United States through structural measures. Dams are designed to reduce flood discharges and river stages, whereas levees are designed to contain river discharges from spilling over to floodplains. There is concern for the safety of dams, principally owing to the possibility of large floods exceeding the capacity [view report] of outlet structures. An instructive example of a challenge in flood risk reduction is the American River case in California, where climate change has affected the hydrologic history and a combination of structural and nonstructural flood risk reduction [view report] is being considered. In August 2005 Hurricane Katrina caused flooding in the New Orleans region that resulted in the loss of hundreds of lives and catastrophic property damage, ranking it among the largest natural disasters in U.S. history. In October 2005, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers formed the Interagency Performance Evaluation Task Force (IPET) to conduct several scientific and engineering studies to evaluate the performance of its hurricane protection system. At the request of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the National Academies formed a committee to review IPET’s work. This committee issued its first report [view report] and is scheduled to issue two more reports in 2006. |
Books Related to Structural Approaches to Hazard Reduction Click on a book for more information.       |
Explore the Books:
|
Contents © 2009, National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. 500 Fifth Street, N.W., Washington, DC 20001 Terms of Use & Privacy Statement |
|