The United States has one of the largest and costliest flood control systems in the world, even though only a small proportion of its land lies in floodplains. Rivers by Design traces the emergence of the mammoth U.S. flood management system, which is overseen by the federal government but implemented in conjunction with state governments and local contractors and levee districts. Karen M. O’Neill analyzes the social origins of the flood control program, showing how the system initially developed as a response to the demands of farmers and the business elite in outlying territories. The configuration of the current system continues to reflect decisions made in the nineteenth century and early twentieth. It favors economic development at the expense of environmental concerns. O’Neill focuses on the creation of flood control programs along the lower Mississippi River and the Sacramento River, the first two rivers to receive federal flood control aid. She describes how, in the early to mid-nineteenth century, planters, shippers, and merchants from both regions campaigned for federal assistance with flood control efforts. She explains how the federal government was slowly and reluctantly drawn into water management to the extent that, over time, nearly every river in the United States was reengineered. Her narrative culminates in the passage of the national Flood Control Act of 1936, which empowered the Army Corps of Engineers to build projects for all navigable rivers in conjunction with local authorities, effectively ending nationwide, comprehensive planning for the protection of water resources.

The goals of nonstructural flood-control planning are formulation, evaluation, selection, and implementation of a practicable management plan that provides optimal protection from the adverse effects of flooding. Many alternative flood-control measures can be dismissed by the water resources planner on the basis of judgement, but a substantial number will require detailed analysis before a suitable plan can be selected. This analysis is an iterative process, requiring input from the planar at each step. Software developed at the Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) allows efficient data storage in a structure-oriented data bank and provides for selective retrieval and manipulation of the data from an interactive terminal. Thus the planner is able to propose nonstructural measures and to evaluate rapidly the economic and technical feasibility of those measures in a iterative scheme that allows the required input from the planner. An application of the interactive plan evaluation software is presented. Steps in creating the data bank are defined, and use of the software for subsequent accessing and manipulating the data for plan evaluation is discussed. (Author).

"Although the initial work authorized in 1948 was primarily for flood control, the emphasis of the project has shifted over the years ... The overall project plan has not been updated and is not current, complete, or accurate ... Also, we believe that this restructured project plan is essential for effective project management and oversight."--Page 9.