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From flood flows to flood maps: the understanding of flood probabilities in the United States
Von Flutströmen zu Flutkarten: das Verständnis von Flutwahrscheinlichkeiten in den Vereinigten Staaten
[journal article]
Abstract In the twentieth century, probability became an important tool in the understanding of flood recurrences and magnitudes. This article focuses on the development of probabilistic flood understandings in the United States. Early efforts focused on projecting flood volumes, but maps of flood risk, brou... view more
In the twentieth century, probability became an important tool in the understanding of flood recurrences and magnitudes. This article focuses on the development of probabilistic flood understandings in the United States. Early efforts focused on projecting flood volumes, but maps of flood risk, brought about in large part by the National Flood Insurance Program, did much to cultivate this way of thinking in a broad audience. Engineers such as Weston Fuller and Allen Hazen, and geographer Gilbert White, play important roles in the trajectory developed in the article. The closely related ideas of the hundred-year flood and the hundred-year floodplain became standard terminology for communicating flood risk, but the knowledge behind them has been called into doubt by the realization of rapid, anthropogenic climate change.... view less
Keywords
insurance coverage; probability; risk communication; disaster control; climate change; natural disaster; United States of America; risk assessment
Classification
Ecology, Environment
Natural Science and Engineering, Applied Sciences
Free Keywords
environmental history; National Flood Insurance Program; Weston Fuller; Allen Hazen; quantification methods; 100-year flood
Document language
English
Publication Year
2015
Page/Pages
p. 134-150
Journal
Historical Social Research, 40 (2015) 2
Issue topic
Climate and beyond: knowledge production about the earth as a signpost of social change
DOI
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.40.2015.2.134-150
ISSN
0172-6404
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed