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Are the Iowa floods man-made?

Thump553

Thump553

Lifer
Here's a link to an article originating in the Washington Post:

How Natural Is This Diaster?

The points made in the article:
-over 90% of Iowa's floodplains were eliminated before the current flood
-increase in the practice of installing drainage tiles in farm fields causes runoff to enter streams and waterways quicker, less time to soak into/pool on land (some fields tiled so as to prevent pooling, make more farmable)
-recent cahnges in farming practices, more corn, less fallow fields, probably contributed to flooding
-In the 1980's and 1990's Iowa led the nation in flood damage consistently.

Much has been made of this flood exceeding 500 year limits. If this article is correct, it is not a 500 year flood we are dealing with but ineffective land regulation that is not complied with.

So next time you get angry when your local town board won't allow a supermarket to go in because of floodplains, or won't allow you to develop part of your yard, think of Iowa. These regulations that may seem onerous on their face actually have real value.

 
Food increase = chance of flooding increase.

Happens anywhere man modfies the natural drainage.
 
It?s simple logic. If the water cannot flood upstream then MORE water will flow downstream thus creating a bigger flood there.
 
Not Man-Made, but perhaps exacerbated due to human practices. I remember the same charges being made after the last Mississipi floods.
 
Actually palehorse, one of the main reasons I posted this thread was to offer up a more probable cause for these so-called 500 year floods than the nebulous global warming rationale, which IMO is drastically over-applied. I personally believe global warming is a real problem but grow tired of it being used as an explanation for every weather event.

And sandorski, you are correct in that exacerbated is the better term than man-made-if fact I would have used it instead but my pre-caffeine mind drew a blank on the proper spelling.
 
Remember: Levees. The CoE policy allowing any idiot with a bulldozer and riverfront property to erect a levee and restrict a major river leads to "500 year floods" every 15 to 20 years. Increase in run-off from development amplifies the problems the narrowing of the natural river channels starts.
 
The Missouri/Mississippi river system actually makes for an extremely interesting study in hydrology. Suffice to say, yes, the floods are man-made. But, at the same time, the river used to flood every single year before our "flood control" projects earlier last century. Which is the problem. The river is supposed to flood.
 
Originally posted by: Vic
The Missouri/Mississippi river system actually makes for an extremely interesting study in hydrology. Suffice to say, yes, the floods are man-made. But, at the same time, the river used to flood every single year before our "flood control" projects earlier last century. Which is the problem. The river is supposed to flood.
Click to expand...
But not for NIMBY people.

 
Here's something you probably have not heard.
There is this dam called Salorville spillway.
It was made back long ago to control flooding.
But it also created a nice tourist boating area,
beautiful large lake with camping and water fun.

So this spillway was full of water, for boating.
Then comes the floods, and there is no where for the water to collect.
Its already full and kept full for boating.

So they open the spillway, letting all the over flow run down stream
and thus flooding everything from that point on.

The Salorville spillway/dam was suppose to collect and control flooding.
But since it was already kept full for boating and fun times, the high water had to
be passed on to the river below causing massive flooding down stream.

Its like if you had a dripping ceiling, dripping rain water, and you placed a full bucket of
water under the drip. Well... get the mop.
 
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