A floodplain, or flood plain, is flat or nearly flat land adjacent to a stream or river that experiences occasional flooding.

It includes the floodway, which consists of the stream channel and adjacent areas that carry flood flows, and the flood fringe, which are areas covered by the flood, but which do not experience a strong current.

Floodplains are formed in two ways: by erosion; and by aggradation.

An erosional floodplain is created as a stream cuts deeper into its channel and laterally into its banks.

A stream with a steep gradient will tend to downcut faster than it causes lateral erosion, resulting in a deep, narrow channel with little or no floodplain at all..

For more information about the topic Floodplain, read the full article at Wikipedia.org, or see the following related articles:

Levee — A levee, floodbank or stopbank is a natural or artificial embankment or dike, usually earthen, which parallels the course of a river. The main ...  > read more

Sediment — Sediment is any particulate matter that can be transported by fluid flow and which eventually is deposited as a layer of solid particles on the bed ...  > read more

Flood — A flood is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. Since prehistoric times people have lived by the seas and rivers for ...  > read more

Erosion — Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of wind, water or ice, by downward or down-slope movement ...  > read more

Related Stories

Proximity To A Flood Zone Lowers Property Values (April 3, 2008) — Proximity to a flood zone lowers property values. By law, a property is considered in a “flood zone” if any part of the structure falls within a floodplain, an area that is adjacent to a ...  > read more

Vegetation Hardly Affected By Extreme Flood Events: Impacts On Flora And Fauna Of The Elbe Flood Of 2002 (October 2, 2008) — Extreme flood events in floodplain grasslands affect carabid beetles and molluscs more than plants. Biologists did several years of observations before and after the Elbe floods of August 2002 in ...  > read more

Spring Flooding In Mid-Western US Forecast, But People Still Build On Floodplains (April 4, 2008) — Midwesterners have to be wondering: Will April be the cruelest month? Patterns in the Midwest this spring are eerily reminiscent of 1993 and 1994, back-to-back years of serious flooding. Despite the ...  > read more

Alfalfa Sprouts Key To Discovering How Meandering Rivers Form And Maintain (October 6, 2009) — Restoring rivers to their natural state is now hit-and-miss, primarily because scientists don't really know what makes a river meander. A scale model using alfalfa sprouts to represent vegetation now ...  > read more

More Accurate FEMA Flood Maps Could Help Avoid Significant Damages And Losses (January 25, 2009) — Significant loss of life, destroyed property and businesses, and repairs to infrastructure could be avoided by replacing Federal Emergency Management Agency flood maps with ones that contain ...  > read more

Search ScienceDaily

Every Second Counts