Foods stir up river sediments and can spread contaminants across the floodplain. It’s a risk in areas with a history of industrial pollution, like Maribyrnong, but EPA test results are reassuring.
Local councils are on the front line in a planning system that lacks an up-to-date planning framework to properly assess flood risks and prepare responses.
Maywood Riverfront Park was built on the site of eight former industrial properties in Los Angeles County.
Luis Sinco/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Climate change is colliding with old factory sites where soil or water contamination still exist, and the most vulnerable populations are particularly at risk.
A street-by-street analysis shows where the risks are rising fastest and also lays bare the inequities of who has to endure America’s crippling flood problem.
Wetlands created by beavers, like this one in Amherst, Massachusetts, store floodwaters and provide habitat for animals and birds.
Christine Hatch
Floodplains are among the most productive ecosystems on the planet – they are biodiversity hotspots. That’s in large part due to periodic flooding between different parts of a river-floodplain system.
An oasis in the Sahara Desert, Libya.
Patrick Poendl/Shutterstock
Blaming flooding on an act of God wrongly absolves government and developers of their liability for poor decisions that unfairly burden taxpayers.
A fireman adjusts a hose in front of a house with a visible mark on its wall of where the flood level reached during the cleanup after storm Dennis in Crickhowell, Wales, February 17 2020.
EPA-EFE/DIMITRIS LEGAKIS
As Hurricane Florence is expected to pound the Carolinas with significant flooding, an insurance expert explains how the program designed to help the millions affected recover.
Relatively few homes hit by Harvey have flood insurance.
Reuters/Carlo Allegri
The federal government created a program in 1968 to insure homes in the US from flooding, yet few of the houses hammered by Harvey’s record rainfall were covered.
The financial impact of Hurricane Katrina on individual lives has been little studied until now.
Reuters/Robert Galbraith
Researchers examined credit data on the victims of Hurricane Katrina to understand how the disaster affected their personal finances, revealing important lessons for those hurt by Harvey.