Impact of Flood Control by Chris Roark

1
Impact of Flood Controlby Chris Roark

• Focusing on the 1993 flood of the Upper
  Mississippi River will help us understand
• Precautions taken
• Damages resulting
• The future of flood control

2
All dark blue areas represent parts of the Upper
Mississippi River Valley that experiences flooding
3
The black bars represent the unexpected results
from the climate change of 1993.
4
Damages as a Result of the Flood

• 1000 of around 1300 levees along the whole
  Mississippi were broken
• The total damages in Illinois were estimated to
  be over 20 billion dollars.
• Costs to employ clean up workers exceeded one
  billion dollars.
• 900,000 acres of crops were lost.
• 45,000 home owners applied for disaster
  assistance.
• Over 12,000 miles of roads were closed.
• Public drinking water was contaminated
• Chemicals were spread through out flooded areas
  from fertilizers and pesticides being washed out
  of farming soil.

5
Why did so many levees break?

• Overtopping
• Liquefaction of foundation materical
• Mass failure

6
Rebuilding Levees

• The costs of protection out weight the potential
  damage of such a rare storm.
• Personal levees
• State and Federally funded levees to protect
  large populations.

7
Water Quality

• 12,000 pounds of harmful farm chemical atrazine
  is carried by the Mississippi at Thebes per day
• Many water facilities were closed down for days
  or weeks.
• The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency had
  to be hired to test all wells and other effected
  water supply for bacteria and harmful chemicals

8
Lessons learned

• By examining many different areas involving the
  flood the storm and its impact can be predicted
  more accurately.

9
Sources

• Smith, Norman. A History of Dams. 1st. London
  The Chaucer Press, 1971.
• Buchdahl, Joe. "Temporate Climate." Encylocpedia
  of the Atmospheric World. 2000. Department of
  Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs. 20 Feb
  2009 lthttp//www.ace.mmu.ac.uk/eae/english.htmlgt.
  
• Bhowmik, Nani. The 1993 Flood on the Mississippi
  River in Illinois. 1st. Illinois State Water
  Survey, 1993.
• "The Mississippi River Flood Of 1993 ." Storm
  Encyclopedia. Weather Channel. 20 Feb 2009
  lthttp//www.weather.com/ encyclopedia/flood/miss9
  3.htmlgt.
• " Latest Midwest floods expose lessons
  unlearned." USA Today J0E05216676500807/07/2008
  27 Feb 2009 lthttp//search.ebscohost.com/login.asp
  x?directtruedbaphANJ0E052166765008loginpage
  Login.aspsiteehost- livescopesitegt.
• Song , Yang. "Response of the Seasonal
  Simulations ." Journal of Hydrometeorolgoy
  8(2007) 738-740.
• Moore, John. The Great Flood of 1993 Long Term
  Approaches to the Management of the Mississppi
  and Illinois Rivers . 1st. Springfield State
  of Illinois, 1993.
• Cohon, Jared. Estimating Probabilities of Extreme
  Floods. 1st. Washington D.C. National Academy
  Press, 1988.
• Jansen, Robert. Safety of Existing Dams. 1st.
  Washington D.C. National Academy Press, 1983.
• image slide 2 -http//el.erdc.usace.army.mil/flood
  /maps/floodext.gif
• image slide 3- national weather service