The River Cole

Distance: 40km
Small stream which is generally shallow
Flood Mitigation Currently Being Used:

Past Mitigation Techniques:

- Channel Straightening  For Milling
- Channel Widening  To Reduce Risk of Flooding
- Dredging  To reduce risk of flooding
Current Technique:
- Restoring the old river as much as possible
- Recreating wetlands
Flood Prediction Methods:
- Gauging stations  3 gauging stations
- Flood risk assessments for infrastructure
Costs:
- Farmers unhappy about nearby developing marshland
- Farmers unhappy about loss of land
- Farmers unhappy with potential damaging crops/land
Benefits:
- Marshlands absorb lots of water and help prevent flooding
- The river should flood more frequently and deposit alluvial soil as is natural
- New wildlife and plants have inhabited the area
- The surrounding environment is much nicer
The Mississippi

Size of Drainage Basin: 2.98 Million Km2

Average Discharge (Ish): 520 km3 each year
Volume of Sediment: 200 million metric tonnes per year on average (but this value has decreased
significantly in the last few decades)

Hard Flood Mitigation Techniques:

- The lower Mississippi has Levee’s longer than the great wall of china. (5600km)
- Wing Dykes
- Bank Stabilization (Revetment)  In the New Orleans District
- Weirs  Over 190
- Dredging  Consistently since 1930
- Diversionary Spillways  Like Morganza
- Dams  Blanchard Dam
- Lock and Dam Structures  29 in the upper reaches
Soft Flood Mitigation Techniques:
- Afforestation
- Flood Risk Assessments
- Flood Forecasting  Using Gauge Stations and Advanced Weather Prediction Methods
(Satellite, doppler radar, weather centres)
Costs:
- Loss of floodplain that would naturally have self-replenishing alluvial soil
- Rivers can become extremely polluted
- Natural beauty is lost
- Natural Habitats may be destroyed
- Extreme cost of infrastructure, construction and maintenance
- Very high (usually much higher than it would be without management) cost in the event of
flooding
- Sediment is stopped by dams and prevented from moving downstream
Benefits:
- Floodplain can be built on as there isn’t the same frequent risk of flooding
- Realignment speeds up flow and moves water fast downstream
- Straightened channel makes farming and having infrastructure nearby more manageable
- Reduces frequency of small floods which saves the constant cost of reparations
- Makes the river easier to navigate