I attended a talk by a planner in my city and they explained that the big “useless” lawn area near the downtown is pretty much the only thing stopping the downtown from flooding when it rains, so yeah i don’t mind it as much anymore.
Meh, just build levees and make it the next towns problem
Also applies to floodplains.
the hint is in the name!
Mfw the wetlands make my house wet
Add some buffers inbeween and no flood anymore.
As far as I’m aware we largely control floods using dams and reservoirs and those systems work extraordinarily well. Wetlands are awesome, there are a source of biodiversity and should be preserved.
However, we have way more effective ways to prevent floods. Wetlands cannot beat human construction in terms of protecting lives from flooding.
Wetlands and floodplains are very important to mitigating floods, soil retention, and mass filtering. We haven’t beaten nature and are spending significant sums of money to revitalize and protect these areas because we have realized that they are just better than what we do.
Which one’s more sustainable and budget friendly?
Dams can fail. Just look at Libia right now. And I know not every country is Libia, but pretty much all dams in the US are fucked too and nothing is being done about it. This is all very expensive infrastructure that needs constant upkeep and investment and is disastrous if that for some reason isn’t being done. Here in the Netherlands, there has been a massive project the past like 20 years to ‘give rivers space’ with wetlands and floodplains. It works well. I mean, we are literally the best in the world in managing water. 2 years ago a couple of rivers flooded. The city I lived in was already done with their part of the project. The floodplains flooded and everyone was safe, but another city which wasn’t done yet flooded and some cities in Germany and Belgium did too.
We can’t beat nature on this one. All our attempts to prevent flooding are expensive and just move the issue elsewhere. Working with nature is the way to go.
We have literally beat nature on this one. Basically every advanced society’s first step into being an advanced society is building up a network of dams and reservoirs that control their rivers.
This is not some hideous expensive failed project, this is one of the most successful enterprises that every society in the course of humankind has done.
This is like saying that farming is a failure.
Is it the real reason? Or somebody just made it up? Because for sure there are engineering solutions to this problem.
There are a couple of great “practical engineering” videos on the topic of you’re interested:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UBivwxBgdPQ&si=4gPaAIjc_Lpr9mXh
https://youtube.com/watch?v=vLZElIYHmAI&si=LN61GGBKK88oImkF
It’s one, but you aren’t supposed to build that close to the wetland. Like a drain in a house, just because, you should always want water to go somewhere if its on the floor else would have long term problems. Part of the reason street roads are not flat.
The image is the equivalent of choosing to build a house on low tide. and wouldn’t realistically happen.
There are cities built on top of former wetlands. And they are fine. Sure, a proper drainage required, and sometimes dam/barrier, but it is doable.
