River Management

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methods used to prevent flooding from rivers are divided into hard engineering and soft engineering.

HARD ENGINEERING

>uses machinery or defences e.g. A dam

this makes a reservoir which stores water when there is heavy rainfall and controls the flow of the river. it is effective at controlling the river and is sometimes multi-purpose. it is expensive and ruins farmland as well as landscapes. other hard engineering to flood management are things such as building artificial levees and straightening and deepening of river channels

SOFT ENGINEERING

>works with the environment e.g. afforestation and 'ecological flooding'

this last methods allows the river to flood naturally in rural areas to protect urban areas. methods of flood control can be short term emergency measures such as evacuation and sand bags, and then there are long term prevention and control measures.