Page 36 - Year 10 Knowledge Organiser

Geography: 4 of 5

River Management Strategies

Hard Engineering
Factors affecting flooding
Strategy Benefits Costs
Physical Human
Dams & Reservoirs– • Can be used for HEP or • V expensive (Kielder dam cost £167 million)
• Precipitation • Farming Concrete dams control tourism • Social costs of displacement
• Geology • Urbanisation river flow by creating • Creates new wetland • Reservoirs silt up
• Relief • Deforestation artificial reservoir habitats • Can lead to conflict over
• Creates source of water rights eg Nile
drinking water
• V effective
Channel Straightening – • Insurance premiums • Lead to flooding downstream
water flows out of area may fall • High maintenance
faster • Effective • unattractive
• Navigation improved
Embankments – • Increased capacity for • Expensive
artificially raised using carrying water • Looks artificial
concrete to • Creates walkways • More serious flooding if embankment fails
deepen channel (eg London) (New Orleans)
• New river bank habitats

Flood Relief Channels – • Opportunities for • V expensive – Jubilee River cost £110
new channels to by pass recreation (fishing and million)
towns walking) • Regular maintenance needed
• New aquatic habitats • Habitats disturbed
creates
• Insurance premiums
reduced

Soft Engineering
Flood Warnings. - • Sustainable • People may not respond
monitoring rivers to allow • Low cost • Need for
floods to be predicted • Focus on helping people monitoring equipment

Floodplain Zoning – • Low cost • Restricts
not building in flood areas • Conserves water meadows economic development
for recreation and wildlife • Housing shortage
• Hard to
implement retrospectively
Planting trees – Trees • Crates habitats • Loss of farmland
increase interception and • Natural • Loss of economic use of land
slow flooding • Low cost • Not totally effective