From the course: Practical Engineering
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Engineering hydrology and the 100-year flood
From the course: Practical Engineering
Engineering hydrology and the 100-year flood
(upbeat electronic music) - [Instructor] We all know the water cycle. We've seen this classic image with the green earth and the blue water and the arrows and the smiley face on the sun. So you probably already know that the majority of the rain that falls from the sky ends up washing along the ground, following gravity until it eventually finds a stream or channel. The more it rains, the higher the creeks and rivers rise, and if they rise too much, you've got a flood. Now almost everyone agrees flooding is bad. Most years, it's the number one natural disaster in the US by dollars of damage, and flooding is particularly capricious, so you can see why it's so crucial that we be able to characterize it, to know it and understand it so we can try to get better at how we manage it in the future. In the 1960s, we started to recognize the fact that development was exacerbating flood risk by putting more and more expensive homes and businesses near rivers and creeks. Everyone wants a…
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