New Policy Focus Report: On Borrowed Land: Public Policies for Floodplains (Land Lines Article)

Author(s): LeRoyer, Ann
Publication Date: May 1996

Inventory ID LLA960505; English

Article

Until the summer of 1993 in the Midwest, the risks of living near a river's edge seemed insignificant compared to the advantages of access to water-borne commerce and rich agricultural bottomlands. But the Great Flood of 1993, the most destructive flooding event in the United States in more than 50 years, changed the way many people calculate the economic and social costs of floodplain development.

As documented in the Institute's new report On Borrowed Land: Public Policies for Floodplains, the Great Flood also forced the nation to question assumptions and government responsibilities regarding floodplains. For the preceding 150 years, the federal government had gradually assumed much of the responsibility for flood control and the risks of land uses in floodplains--by building and repairing levees, paying disaster relief, and providing subsidized flood insurance. While these measures helped protect many homes, businesses and farms, they also indirectly encouraged state and local officials to permit new development in flood-prone areas and allow other land use decisions that eliminated many of the natural flood control functions of floodplains and wetlands.

On Borrowed Land is one in a series of policy focus reports published by the Lincoln Institute to address timely land-related questions of concern to policymakers, scholars and citizens. It is based on the Institute's conference on "Community Land Policy and River Flooding: The Great Flood of 1993" held in Cambridge, in September 1994. Participants included officials from 33 municipalities in nine upper Midwest states and professionals in planning, economics, geography, law, ecology and engineering.

Written for the Lincoln Institute by Scott Faber, director of floodplain programs at American Rivers in Washington, DC., the 32-page illustrated report is available for $14.00 each for 1 to 9 copies; orders of 10 or more copies receive a 25 percent discount, for a unit price of $10.50. Shipping and handling fees are added to all orders.