Natural disasters

Improving American River Flood Frequency Analyses

by Committee on American River Flood Frequencies, National Research Council

Description

Sacramento, California, has grown literally at the edge of the Sacramento and American Rivers and for 150 years has struggled to protect itself from periodic floods by employing structural and land management measures. Much of the population lives behind levees, and most of the city's downtown business and government area is vulnerable to flooding. A major flood in 1986 served as impetus for efforts by federal, state, and local entities to identify an acceptable and feasible set of measures to increase Sacramento's level of safety from American River floods. Numerous options were identified in 1991 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) in a report known as the American River Watershed Investigation. Due to the controversial nature of many of the alternatives identified in that report, study participants were not able to reach consensus on any of the flood control options. In response, the Congress directed the USACE to reevaluate available flood control options and, at the same time, asked the USACE to engage the National Research Council (NRC) as an independent advisor on these difficult studies. In 1995 NRC's Committee on Flood Control Alternatives in the American River Basin issued Flood Risk Management and the American River Basin: An Evaluation. This report outlined an approach for improving the selection of a flood risk reduction strategy from the many available.

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WW ex JP, CN, KR ; L

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http://www.nap.edu/6483

National Academies Press

National Academies Press

The National Academies Press (NAP) publish the reports of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. They published more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics.

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Bibliographic Information

  • Publisher National Academies Press
  • Publication Date April 1999
  • Orginal LanguageEnglish
  • ISBN/Identifier 9780309064330
  • Publication Country or regionUnited States
  • FormatPaperback
  • Primary Price 44 USD
  • Pages132
  • ReadershipProfessional and scholarly
  • Publish StatusPublished
  • Dimensions11 x 8.5 inches
  • Biblio Notes1999

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