AbstractsEngineering

"Floods have occurred in the past and will occur again in the future. References to floods are incorporated in some of the early writings of man. Unfortunately though man has recorded the event, he has seldom recorded facts whereby it is possible to determine the volume of flow or the height to which the water rose. Where man has recorded the height to which water rose, much data such as channel conditions, vegetation coverage on the flood plain, etc., remains vague or unknown. It has been only in comparatively recent times with the advent of the steamboat that man has systematically recorded information regarding river stages and approached the problem in a logical manner. The period of record for most of the rivers of the united states, however, can be placed at well under one hundred years. One hundred years of record for a phenomena with causes as complex as those causing floods is meager compared to the vast volume of unrecorded events. The engineer, however, must take recorded fact and make has predictions. This paper is written concerning records of less than one hundred years and a method used to establish flood levels upon which engineering structures could be designed" – Preface, p. iii.