The Los Angeles River in the San Fernando Valley, 2000

Photograph by author

PAST, PRESENT, AND POSSIBILITIES

FLOODING

WATER SUPPLY

PARKSPACE

A comparison of the major floods since 1900 reveals the loosing battle with water in the Los Angeles River basin. On three occasions in the past century, the region has experience what meteorologists consider a 100-year storm, an event that actually seems to occur every 30 years. Despite continued investment in flood control technology, the creation of regulation dams, and progressively higher concrete levees, the water runoff of increased urbanization has always outpaced these efforts. The escalation of the peak river outflow during storm events indicates an increase in hard-surface urban area feeding the river. This leads to the astonishing fact that between 5 and 10 percent of the non-mountainous area in the watershed is perpetually at risk of inundation, regardless of flood control efforts, as the following comparisons illustrate.

Researched by students at LAUSD's Jefferson High School, the Los Angeles River Connection documents the river in its present condition.

Technical data on the Los Angeles County Drainage Area system's dams is available from the Army Corps of Engineers / Los Angeles District

Information of these flood events is from Blake Gumprecht, The Los Angeles River (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999)

The Los Angeles River near Reseda Park in the San Fernando Valley

Photograph by author

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