Inland Flood Hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities

Abstract

It is an immutable natural fact that floods happen. They have happened throughout Earth's history and, most likely, will continue in perpetuity. Floods and hydrological variability are fundamental natural processes that intimately affect many ecological phenomena. Floods and human society also share common ground—usually the floodplain—but their coexistence is often tenuous, uncertain, and disharmonious. Society's attempts to settle floodplain areas, control floods, and regulate stream flow often have adverse ecologic, aesthetic, and social consequences. These statements characterize the dominant thematic undercurrent that flows throughout Inland Flood Hazards: Human, Riparian, and Aquatic Communities. The book, which was edited by Ellen E. Wohl, is ambitiously comprehensive in scope and includes 19 chapters that focus on wide‐ranging topics related to floods. Twenty‐two authors contributed to the volume.