Rebecca Stefoff - Building Dikes and Levees

Building Dikes and Levees — read online for free the complete book (whole text) full work

Below is the text of the book, divided by pages. System saving the place of the last page read, allows you to conveniently read the book "Building Dikes and Levees" online for free, without having to search again every time where you left off. Put a bookmark, and you can go to the page where you finished reading at any time.

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

1234

Table of Contents

.

Building DIKES AND LEVEES

REBECCA STEFOFF

.

.

GREAT

Building

EnGinEERinG

DIKES LEVEES

and

REbEccA sTEfoff

.

Published in 2016 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016

Copyright 2016 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

First Edition

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Request for permission should be addressed to Permissions, Cavendish Square Publishing,

5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016. Tel ( 877) 980-4450; fax ( 877) 980-4454.

Website: cavendishsq. com

This publication represents the opinions and views of the author based on his or her personal experience, knowledge, and research. The information in this book serves as a general guide only. The author and publisher have used their best efforts in preparing this book and disclaim liability rising directly or indirectly from the use

and application of this book.

CPSIA Compliance Information: Batch #WS15CSQ

All websites were available and accurate when this book was sent to press.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Stefoff, Rebecca, 1951- Building dikes and levees / Rebecca Stefoff.

pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-50260-610-5 ( hardcover) ISBN 978-1-50260-609-9 ( paperback) ISBN 978-1-50260-611-2 ( ebook) Dikes ( Engineering) Levees. I. Title.

TC337. S74 2016 627'. dc23

2015006645

Editorial Director: David McNamara Editor: Andrew Coddington Copy Editor: Rebecca Rohan Art Director: Jeffrey Talbot Designer: Amy Greenan

Senior Production Manager: Jennifer Ryder-Talbot Production Editor: Renni Johnson

Photo Research: J8 Media

The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of: Bas Meelker/ Shutterstock. com, cover; Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images, 5; Zacarias Pereira da Sandeen/File: Natural levees. png/Wikimedia Commons, 9; E R Degginger/Science Source/Getty Images, 11; The Sacramento Bee, Randall Benton/AP Images, 12; Goodluz/Shutterstock. com, 14; Corepics VOF/Shutterstock. com, 15; Joe Raedle/Getty Images, 17; Toa55/Shutterstock. com, 18; ZUMA Press, Inc. /Alamy, 20; Marc Pinter/Shutterstock. com, 21; Mario

Tama/Getty Images, 23; CreativeNature R. Zwerver/Shutterstock. com,

Printed in the United States of America

.

TABlE OF

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE: Fighting Floods

CHAPTER TWO: Walls Against Water

CHAPTER THREE: Constructing a Water Barrier

CHAPTER FOUR: Do Levees Work

Glossary

Find Out More

Index

About the Author

.

CHAPTER ONE

Fighting

Floods

W ater is important. Every animal and plant needs it. But too much water can be a big problem!

Too much water can cause a flood. A flood happens when water flows over land that is dry most of the time.

Floods cover land and roads. They ruin houses. They kill the crops growing on farms. Big floods can drown people and animals.

One way to keep floods from happening is to build a dike or levee.

.

Dikes and levees are walls that hold water back and keep it from flowing onto the land.

Some levees form without human help. They are built up along the edges of rivers by soil and gravel that wash up onto the banks.

Other levees are built by people to protect the land from floods.

Kinds of Floods

Some floods happen on the ocean coast. A storm pushes high waves onto the land. An earthquake on the bottom of the sea sends huge waves in all directions.

Rivers in Mexico spilled over their banks to flood this town in 2007.

.

Rain can also cause a flood. If rain falls faster than the ground can soak it up, water sits on top of the ground. A little rain makes puddles. A lot of rain may make a flood. Most floods happen along rivers. If the water in the

River rises, the river may flow over its banks. It covers the floodplain, the land on both sides of the river that can be flooded.

Why does the water in a river rise? The reason might be heavy rain. The rain runs into the river, and the river carries it downstream. As more water joins the river, the river becomes too big for its banks.

High winds drive huge waves toward the shore. This could cause a flood.

.

The problem with river floods is that many people live near rivers. A river is a source of water for people and farm crops. It is a highway for boats that carry people and goods. Thats why people build homes and cities along rivers. Millions of people are in danger when those rivers flood.

Chinas River Problem The people of ancient China knew that rivers can be both helpful and dangerous. They built dikes and levees to tame their rivers.

Some of the first levees were built along the Yellow River in northern China. The Yellow River is 3,400 miles (5,472 kilometers) long. It is the sixth-longest river in the world.

The Yellow River picks up soil in the high lands of western China. Later it drops the soil in the flat lands

.

below. This soil around the river is good for farming. But it also builds up on the bottom of the Yellow

River. Over time, the built-up soil lifts the river. Floods happen more often. Almost three thousand years ago, the Chinese people found ways to fight the floods.

One way was to dig ditches and canals to move water out of the river. These human-built waterways carried river water into farm fields.

Another way to fight floods was to build up the banks of the Yellow River. Higher banks kept water from spreading across the land.

Next page

1234

Light

Font size:

↓

↑

Georgia Tahoma Arial Verdana

Reset

Interval:

↓

↑

Bookmark:

Make

Similar books «Building Dikes and Levees»

Look at similar books to Building Dikes and Levees. We have selected literature similar in name and meaning in the hope of providing readers with more options to find new, interesting, not yet read works.

Mary Soderstrom

Against the Seas: Saving Civilizations from Rising Waters

Chris Dikes

The Accident: A Bike, A Truck, and A Train

Rebecca Stefoff

Building Bridges

Rebecca Stefoff

Building Tunnels

Rebecca Stefoff

Building Dams

Rebecca Stefoff

Building Roads

Rebecca Stefoff

Building Skyscrapers

Rebecca Stefoff

John Brown and Armed Resistance to Slavery

Melody Golding

Life Between the Levees: America’s Riverboat Pilots

Barnett

Rain : a natural and cultural history

Rebecca Stefoff

Surviving the Oregon Trail. Stories in American History

Dike Eddleman

Dike Eddleman: Illinois Greatest Athlete

Discussion, reviews of the book Building Dikes and Levees and just readers' own opinions. Leave your comments, write what you think about the work, its meaning or the main characters. Specify what exactly you liked and what you didn't like, and why you think so.