A floodwall is a freestanding, permanent, engineered structure designed to prevent encroachment of
floodwaters. Floodwalls are mainly used on locations where space is scarce, such as cities or where building
levees or dikes (dykes) would interfere with other interests, such as existing buildings, historical architecture or commercial use of embankments.
Floodwalls are nowadays mainly constructed from pre-fabricated concrete elements. Floodwalls often have
coupure
A coupure is a means of closing an opening in a wall, floodwall or levee (dike). The word comes from the French verb which means "to cut".
In historic times a coupure was a location where a breach in the city walls or the walls of a fortres ...
s, which are large openings to provide passage of traffic except during periods of flooding, when they are closed. As a floodwalls mostly consist of relatively short elements compared to dikes, the connections between the elements are critical to prevent the failure of the floodwall.
The substantial costs of floodwalls can be justified by the value of commercial property thus protected from damage caused by flooding.
Floodwalls are sometimes bad for
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...
s.
Floodwalls are almost always built in cities.
See also
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Floodgate
Floodgates, also called stop gates, are adjustable gates used to control water flow in flood barriers, reservoir, river, stream, or levee systems. They may be designed to set spillway crest heights in dams, to adjust flow rates in sluices and ...
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Levee
A levee ( or ), dike (American English), dyke (British English; see American and British English spelling differences#Miscellaneous spelling differences, spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural ...
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Seawall
A seawall (or sea wall) is a form of coastal defense constructed where the sea, and associated coastal processes, impact directly upon the landforms of the coast. The purpose of a seawall is to protect areas of human habitation, conservation, ...
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Gabion
A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building ...
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Maccaferri gabion
A Maccaferri gabion refers to a type of gabion produced by the Maccaferri family.
In 1893, in Casalecchio di Reno near Bologna, Bologna, Italy, large quantities of wire mesh Maccaferri sack gabions were used for the first time to repair dams d ...
References
External links
DeltaWorks.OrgFlood Barriers project in the Netherlands
{{coastal management
Flood barriers