Hard and Soft River Engineering
Pros and Cons, and descriptions of various river engineering types
- Created by: Staś MacLeod
- Created on: 29-01-14 16:17
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- River Engineering
- Soft Engineering
- Floodplain Zoning
- Policies to manage development on or near the floodplain
- Very cheap way of reducing property damage
- Decreases surface runoff
- Housing may be in short supply
- Enforcing is harder in LICs
- Washlands
- Very cost effective
- Provides animal habitats
- Deposits fertile silt
- Large areas occupied and cannot be built on
- Productive land turned into marsh
- Warning Systems
- Early flood warning in the form of media
- Low cost
- Electronic systems are very effective
- Valuables can be moved before flooding
- Sirens used could be vandalised or break
- Limited time to prepare
- Afforestation
- Trees planted in basin to intercept rainfall
- Relatively low cost
- Improves quality of environment
- Soil erosion prevented by root systems
- Very sustainable
- Conifers are often planted, making soil acidic
- Increased fire risk
- Floodplain Zoning
- Hard Engineering
- Embankments
- Raised banks along the river
- Can be used as paths
- Concrete banks slow down erosion
- Earth embankments provide animal habitats
- Banks often not high enough
- Concrete embankments are ugly
- Channelisation
- Widening and deepening of a river, to increase water velocity
- Effective at protecting the immediate area
- Long lasting
- Flooding more likely downstream
- Unnatural and visually intrusive
- Flood Relief Channels
- The alteration and diversion of floodwater
- Safer for people living close to river
- Can be used for recreation
- Require a lot of land
- Extremely expensive
- Dams
- Built along the river to control discharge
- Can be used for hydroelectric power
- Very expensive
- Land lost to new resevoir
- Sediment can be trapped behind wall, causing more erosion downstream
- Flood Walls
- A vertical barrier made from concrete
- Don't take up much space
- Easily erected
- Hard to assemble so water doesn't leak
- Storage Areas
- A depression close to the river that overflows accordingly
- Natural looking
- Doesn't harm the environment
- Needs a large area of land
- Only used when river overflows
- Embankments
- Soft Engineering
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