The Sins of the Past, the Flooding of Today and What About Tomorrow? (a compilation of articles and insights regarding the Midwest Floods)

The Record setting flood heights are occurring all along the Mississippi, breaching levees, drowning 2 million or more acres of agricultural crops and submerging towns located near the river. People all along the path of destruction are asking "why"? For some, the torrential rains were a "freak of nature" or, to quote one authority on the situation, "a case of meteorological bad luck". However, what is being termed as a "natural disaster" probably isn't really all that "natural" after all. To quote the late Gilbert White, "Floods are an act of God, but flood losses are an act of man".

Digital Terrain Modeling for Floodplain Modeling and Mapping

The falling cost of acquiring digital terrain data from remote sensing has enabled a technical revolution to occur for floodplain managers, mappers and modelers. Almost all metropolitan counties and some rural counties now have digital topography that far exceeds the quality of the USGS topographic quads and digital elevation models that were traditionally used by floodplain managers.