The Los Angeles River in the Sepulveda Dam Basin, 2000
Photograph by author
SURRENDER
A comparison of historic floods reveals that 5 to 10 percent of the non-mountainous area within the Los Angeles River basin has always been at risk of inudation during a 100- year storm, regardless of flood control technology. Instead of retrofitting the drainage system with higher concrete levees, what if this area was simply abandoned to the rivers as parks and allowed to flood during the winter rain season? How might these 80 square miles of territory, which would triple the existing parklands, be distributed?