86-Floods and its Aftermath with a Special Reference to the Great Flood on the Upper Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois Rivers in the USA .

Abstract

Flooding of the floodplains has been occurring from the beginning of civilization. Rivers do need its floodplain to convey excess water during extreme flooding events. During low frequency flooding events, the floodplain may simply act as a storage reservoir rather than conveying the flood flow. The interchange of conveyance and storage in a floodplain is a continuous event and it could occur within the same year and within the same event. During the last hundred years or so and in many countries of the world floodplains have been altered to build cities and towns, grow agricultural products, construct roads, bridges, railroads and others. Each of the human activity has resulted in preventing the floodplain to perform its basic function, namely convey the water or store it when needed. All these activities have resulted in increased damages sustained by the society. This paper will concentrate on the 1993 flood on the Upper Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois rivers and the recent flood that occurred on the mid-section of the Mississippi river bordering the State of Illinois. It will also show a pictorial view of these floods, actions undertaken, flood damages occurred, damages prevented due to flood control measures, and some ideas on floodplain management.