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Go DeeperRead the Nature Conservancy article about blowing up levees in Oregon to restore natural wetlands.
Read about The Bill Williams River.
Map: U.S. Conservancy Portfolio sites downstream from US Army Corps of Engineers Dams Connect to our site for floodplain practitioners |
Floodplains provide many benefits to people. They store floodwaters, allowing groundwater aquifers to recharge and natural water purification processes to function. In Asia, the fishery of the Mekong River — which feeds 55 million people — relies on yearly inundations of its floodplain to sustain this massive freshwater food source.
Floodplains link, and play a central role in maintaining the health of, rivers, lakes, wetlands and estuaries. When managed properly, floodplains can provide for agriculture, grazing, and the harvesting of timber and fiber. But in order to function properly, floodplains must be periodically flooded.
Floods have always been an important part of life on earth, shaping the earth’s surface, carving canyons, bringing waters to floodplains and nourishing forests and fields.
Scientists have learned that when we disconnect rivers from their floodplains and completely prevent natural flooding, it is to the peril of the river, the floodplain and — quite often — people. Floods are an essential part of keeping nature in balance, and can be managed in ways that protect people, property, and livelihoods.
Around the world, floodplains have been extensively modified, cleared and disconnected from their rivers by levees and dams.
And not only have dams and levees caused widespread loss of river, floodplain, and estuary species, they have in many places actually increased flood risks by creating a false sense of security and encouraging inappropriate floodplain development.
Reconnecting rivers and floodplain lands is critical for restoring ecosystem health and services and improving resiliency to the impacts of climate change.
Building from Our History
By combining The Nature Conservancy’s long history in land conservation with our experience in sustainable water management, we are working to integrate water and floodplain management. The Nature Conservancy is working to restore and protect rivers and floodplains for future generations by:
- Reconnecting rivers with their floodplains: Allowing periodic flooding of floodplains leads to healthier rivers, lands, and estuaries. Increasingly, techniques are being used to manage flood risks more effectively than rigid use of dams and levees. These techniques include setting levees back from river banks, changing the characteristics of buildings and roads, and protecting floodplain lands through purchase or easements. Examples of relevant projects include the Conservancy’s work on the Yangtze River in China and the Mississippi River in the US.
- Ensuring natural patterns of water flow: Environmental flows are necessary to maintain the health of rivers, floodplains, and estuaries, and need to include low flows and sometimes periodic floods. We are working with water managers around the world to incorporate environmental flows into the operations of dams and coordinating this work with downstream floodplain restoration. Examples of partners include the US Army Corps of Engineers, the national electric energy utility of Honduras, and others.
- Advancing innovative policies and practices to catalyze extensive river-floodplain restoration for nature and people: Innovations in policies that govern water and land management are needed to enable river-floodplain restoration across large geographical scales and to ensure that the full benefits of a functioning floodplain can be realized by society.
Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Scott Warren (local man on the Pantanal); Photo © Mark Godfrey (Mississippi River).
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