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Overdevelopment - Politics, Business, Civil, History - Posted: 22nd Feb, 2006 - 1:41am
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Overdevelopment
Just when we think California has no more room to grow, it grows anyway. Watching all the new homes and schools and stores/malls going up always makes me wonder: Where are they coming from, all these people? Where are we going to get enough water and electricity for everyone? How are we disposing of waste water and garbage? What about police and fire department coverage? These homes are being built on top of what was recently farmland and dairies. Where is our food going to come from now? How will we handle disasters with so many more people? I guess I worry too much...
But then there are some places where development is happening in actual flood plains! Are these people crazy?
https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060218/ap_on_...GZ1BHNlYwMxNzAw
| QUOTE |
| Development Raises Flood Risk Across U.S. By ANDREW BRIDGES, Associated Press Writer Sat Feb 18, 3:04 PM ET ST. LOUIS - Concentrated development in flood-prone parts of Missouri, California and other states has significantly raised the risk of New Orleans-style flooding as people snap up new homes even in areas recently deluged, researchers said Saturday. Around St. Louis, where the Mississippi River lapped at the steps of the Gateway Arch during the 1993 flood, more than 14,000 acres of flood plain have been developed since then. In California, development in the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, where flood control efforts first started in the mid-1800s, represents a major risks to cities such as Stockton as they expand, said Jeffrey Mount, a professor of geology at the University of California, Davis. "We are reinventing Katrina all over again," Mount said. Mount estimates a two-in-three probability over the next 50 years of a catastrophic levee failure in the massive delta region east of San Francisco. Even a moderate flood could breech the delta's levee system while a larger one, perhaps following an earthquake, would inundate the region, Mount said. The Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, which covers 738,000 acres, receives runoff from more than 40 percent of California. Much of the land is below sea level and relies on more than 1,000 miles of levees for protection against flooding, according to the California Department of Water Resources. "In California, we know that we have two kinds of levees: Those that have failed and those that will fail," Mount said. Bolstering levees may lure more people onto flood plains, Mount said. In California, the modest investment required to shore up a levee protecting farmland can result in a dramatic increase in the value of that land, Mount said. That in turn increases the likelihood a farmer will sell out to developers, ushering in the construction of houses on what had been flood plain. "You actually spur development. It's a self-fulfilling process," Mount said. |
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Overdevelopment
Development is necessary for progress simply because the population in these areas is growing at an alarming rate. I do not know if it can ever reach the stage of 'over' development, because that can only happen when buildings are abandoned and services enlisted are no longer useful. Most leaders see expansion as a necessity, because there are always needs for more jobs, more votes, more money to make and of course overdevelopment is much better than overpopulation. Look at New Orleans... isn't it mostly built on water? Even though they know that - they keep on building there - money rules - who cares what the risk factors are even if they are deadly - right?
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TOPIC: Overdevelopment