https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/the-problem-with-levees/

Along the great rivers of the U.S.—the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Illinois and many others—history is tied to the syncopated rhythm of flooding. The great flood years of 1927, 1937, 1993 and 2011 are still remembered and discussed in history classrooms and around the family dinner table in many communities. Similarly, if you drill into most U.S. levees, you find marks similar to the growth rings of a tree, showing that the levee was enlarged multiple times, each time following failure during a previous flood event.

In 2019, with record and near-record flooding on many rivers, we need to look carefully at what agenda the country will set in the wake of this year's floods. In particular, the U.S. needs to scrutinize and resist the temptation to rely single-mindedly on levee protection—the "levees only" engineering strategy that failed the country so catastrophically in the past century.