Levees

Levees Latest News

Nearly 2,000 kilometres of levees built along the Mississippi River over the past century helped protect cities and farmland from major floods.

About Levees

• A levee is a structure, either natural or artificial, built along the edges of a stream or river channel to prevent flooding of the adjacent land. 
• It can also be used to divert the river to increase land for construction. 
• In some countries, levees are used to prevent water from flowing inland from the sea or diverting the river’s course, revealing fertile soil. 
• They can also be used to prevent rivers from overflowing into cities during storms. 
• They are very important features, but if they break, the consequences are disastrous. 
• How Do Levees Occur?
  • A majority of levees form from earth material. 
  • The flow of a water body pushes river sediments to the sides, thus creating a levee. 
  • The riverbank forms a levee made of silk, sediment, and other material such as dead plants to the side as the water flows. 
  • They stretch parallel to the river and control the flow. 
  • Natural levees can be reinforced using artificial material. 
  • In cases where levees do not exist, then artificial ones are constructed. They are made by piling rocks, sand, and soil along the riverbank. 
  • When the river flow is too strong, they can be made of metal, wood, or plastic material. In some places, they are made of concrete.
  • Levees are constructed to a variety of heights and widths and with a variety of materials. The height or width of a levee often depends upon possible rain and storm events.
  • One of the largest modern systems of levees is that built along the Mississippi River In the central United States.
• Sea Levees:
  • A majority of the leaves are used to control the flow of the river, but others are built along the coast. 
  • The Netherlands is a prime example of how dams, levees, and dikes can be used to control tides. 
  • The reclaimed land is then used for agricultural or residential use. 
  • A levee was also constructed along the coast of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada to prevent high tides from flowing inland.

News: TOI

‹ ›