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Cattle grazing below high water, Isle of Dogs, 1792 (Robert Dodd, detail: National Maritime Museum) The Embanking of the tidal Thames is the historical process by which the lower River Thames, at one time a shallow waterway, perhaps five times broader than today, winding through malarious marshlands, has been transformed by human intervention into a deep, narrow tidal canal flowing between ...
A levee, an artificial bank raised above the immediately surrounding land to redirect or prevent flooding by a river, lake or sea; Embankment (earthworks), a raised bank to carry a road, railway, or canal across a low-lying or wet area; Embankment dam, a dam made of mounded earth and rock
By placing these embankments somewhat back from the margin of the river-bed, a wide flood-channel is provided for the discharge of the river as soon as it overflows its banks, while leaving the natural channel unaltered for the ordinary flow. Low embankments may be sufficient where only exceptional summer floods have to be excluded from meadows.
The side of a levee in Sacramento, California. A levee (/ ˈ l ɛ v i / or / ˈ l ɛ v eɪ /), [a] [1] dike (American English), dyke (British English; see spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural or artificial, alongside the banks of a river, often intended to protect against flooding of the area adjoining the river.
Human-made embankments are backed by reclaimed wetland grazing areas, but rising sea levels may make it necessary briefly to flood some of that land at spring tides, to take the pressure off the defences and main watercourses. The Blackwater Estuary, on the Essex coast, in the northern part of the Greater Thames Estuary. Mersea Island is on the ...
The sea wall was reshaped to accommodate terraced planters, while the fish farm’s ponds and dikes were turned into a mangrove habitat. Inland, porous green space helps slow the flow of water and ...
Most flood embankments are between 1 metre and 3 metres high. A 5-metre-high (16 ft) flood embankment is rare. [1] Modern improvements to this design include constructing an internal central core made from impermeable substance like clay or concrete, some even use metal pilings. [2] Some authorities call man-made structures levees.
The Netherlands has a large area of polders: as much as 20% of the land area has at some point in the past been reclaimed from the sea, thus contributing to the development of the country. IJsselmeer is the most famous polder project of the Netherlands. Some other countries which have polders are Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada and China.