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6 - Dikes and Floodplains

Impacts of Flood Control on Lowland Rivers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 November 2021

Paul F. Hudson
Affiliation:
Universiteit Leiden
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Summary

This chapter singularly focuses on the impacts of dikes (levees), including their design, management, and influence on hydrologic and fluvial sedimentary processes. Floodplain embankment commonly removes ~75% of the natural floodplain from annual flood pulse dynamics. Flood control by embankment fundamentally alters fluvial processes between, along, and beyond dikes. Over longer timescales dikes result in a unique floodplain environment characterized by distinctive morphologic, hydrologic, and sedimentary features that do not exist on natural floodplains. Dike breach ponds are distinctive hydrologic features along dikes that provide valuable ecosystem services. Embanked floodplains trap flood deposits that results in thicker and somewhat coarser flood deposits, which buries natural wetlands and infills floodplain lakes. This results in a channel belt ‘perched’ above low-lying flood basins, which increases the risk of avulsion. The chapter closes by integrating concepts related to channel engineering (Chapter 5) and floodplain embankment to arrive at an evolutionary model for engineered rivers, which provides a segue to flood basin management (Chapter 7).

Type
Chapter
Information
Flooding and Management of Large Fluvial Lowlands
A Global Environmental Perspective
, pp. 166 - 204
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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  • Dikes and Floodplains
  • Paul F. Hudson, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Flooding and Management of Large Fluvial Lowlands
  • Online publication: 04 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139015738.007
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  • Dikes and Floodplains
  • Paul F. Hudson, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Flooding and Management of Large Fluvial Lowlands
  • Online publication: 04 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139015738.007
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Dikes and Floodplains
  • Paul F. Hudson, Universiteit Leiden
  • Book: Flooding and Management of Large Fluvial Lowlands
  • Online publication: 04 November 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139015738.007
Available formats
×