Addressing Soil Degradation and Flood Risk Decision Making in Levee Protected Agricultural Lands under Increasingly Variable Climate Conditions

Lois Wright Morton^1*, Kenneth R. Olson²

¹Department of Sociology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, USA.
²Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, College of Agricultural, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/jep.2014.512117                

Abstract

Public and private levee systems may not be robust enough to address flooding risk to agriculture under changing climate conditions. Of concern are levee protected riverine bottomlands with intensive agricultural uses and diminished wetland systems that give resilience to floodplain hydrologic functions. In the United States natural and induced levee breaching has caused soil damage, loss of agricultural productivity, and public tension among agricultural landowners, urban residents, and environmental interests. Risk management and adaptive capacity of this humannatural system could be improved by assessments of 1) soil damage and 2) stakeholder values, fears, and knowledge about the riverine bottomland agroecosystem.

Keywords

Levee Breaching, Soil Damage, Climate Change, Agriculture, Stakeholder Values, Agroecosystem, Flooding

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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