Making room for natural floodplains
When the stream floods, a wide, natural valley floor (floodplain) can store a great deal of water. If the water can spread out, it rises less. It is also slowed down by friction with the ground. Natural, rough vegetation in the valley floor (scrub, bushes, trees) provides additional delay. This helps to prevent a flood wave downstream.
In the past, it was customary to build villages and towns in the flat valley. Now that the climate is changing, it is necessary to keep as much space as possible in the valley, where still possible, free for water storage. Rugged nature is ideally suited to this function. The water is welcome there.
Natural solutions
- Developing natural grasslands
- Developing natural forests
- Food forest
- Making space for beaver activity
- Making room for natural floodplains
- Making room for meandering
- Raising the stream bed
- Lowering banks
- Removing drainage systems
- Planting scrub hedges and copses
- Standard orchard
- Wide infiltration strip
- Grafts
- Swales
- Keylines
- Converting (maize) fields on slopes into grassland or woodland
- Wadi
- Intercepting runoff on (sunken) roads