Flood Risk Management and the American River Basin

Book excerpt: This book reviews the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' (USACE) investigations of flood control options for the American River basin and evaluates flood control feasibility studies for the watershed, with attention to the contingency assumptions, hydrologic methods, and other analyses supporting the flood control options. This book provides detailed comments on many technical issues, including a careful review of the 1991 National Research Council report American River Watershed Investigation, and looks beyond the Sacramento case to broader questions about the nation's approach to flood risk management. It discusses how to utilize information available about flood hazard reduction alternatives for the American River basin, the potential benefits provided by various alternatives, the impacts of alternatives on environmental resources and ecosystems, and the trade-offs inherent in any choice among alternatives which does not lie in the realm of scientists and engineers, but in the arena of public decisionmaking.