I understand the flooding in the Midwest is terrible, but in the long run isn't a flood good for the soil.

Question

I understand the flooding in the Midwest is terrible, but in the long run isn't a flood good for the soil.

Answer 1

Yes, you are caught in the almighty modern dilemma.  Flooding is good for the soil, and river migration is good for the environment including facilitating runoff, but once we humans come along and build there, we tend to get irritated when nature tries to go back doing what it always did, moving the river channel and overflowing its banks every few years.  Can't god see that we have built here?  What IS he thinking?

In fact, all of the prevention measures we impose on the rivers actually make things worse when nature finally does win out, as it always will.  If the river channels were not horribly confined by levees, the water would spread out a little bit over a large stretch of the river, making the rise of the river a lot less at any given location.

Have you noticed how the news has mentioned that downstream locations have been saved from disaster by broken levees upstream?  Those few inches or feet that the maximum level is reduced by such breakouts has been critical in avoiding flooding at many other places.

And guess what we are going to do once the crisis is over?  go right back and build those levees a little bit higher.

Answer 2

The floods might be good for the soil, if the mud was allowed to settle on the farm land.  But it isn't.  The Mississippi levees and dam system means that a lot of the mud ends up in the ocean.  About 225 million tons each year is sent down to the Gulf of Mexico.  Even more settles to the bottom of the river basin, and will eventually need to be spread out.

Answer 3

If the root system in the soil is sufficient to bind the soil and increase water uptake, it's good for the soil, but tree stumps from overlogging are dead stumps which don't hold water at all.  In which case soil erosion occurs, washing away vital nutrients in the topsoil.

Write to your space agency to transport bottled water to the moons and Mars.  Unfortunately, the Earth is similar to a fishbowl, it just fills up with water unless some of it is removed. Potable bottled water should be shipped to the moon and Mars to offload it from Earth, Don't forget that water vapor and CO2 are the 2 primary byproducts of combustion of all fuels, and also of respiration. Think of all the animals respiring.

Combustion:

Butane C4H10 + 6.5 O2 --> 4 CO2 + 5 H2O

Aerobic Respiration:

C6H12O6 + oxygen --> 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + energyO

Answer 4

Not when it takes the soil with it.

Answer 5

Maybe good for the soil, but so so good for the homes and businesses, the crops that have been destroyed, the animals that have had to be relocated or have drowned...

Answer 6

Floods and volcanic eruptions are great for soil, not so great to be caught in.