Cold Regions Engineering
U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Hanover, New Hampshire
Combined Effects of Temperature
and Soils on Infiltration
More people are living and working in towns near rivers and coasts, with the result that losses due to flooding are
becoming increasingly more common and severe. These consequences are not solely due to development within floodplains,
but also to the cumulative effects of historical watershed alterations that have changed the hydrologic, hydraulic, and
sediment-carrying capacity of the watersheds. Increased emphasis on environmental and socioeconomic aspects of floods and
flood damage reduction requires the development of improved methods for the planning, design, construction, maintenance,
operation, and monitoring of urban flood damage reduction projects to maximize benefits in a manner that is morpho-
logically, environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now engaged in
innovative planning, design, operation and maintenance, construction, and emergency response methods to provide flood
damage reduction for current and projected growth in urbanized inland and coastal areas. The lead research program for this
effort is called Technologies and Operational Innovations for Urban Watershed Networks (TOWNS), which has been
strategically designed to develop technical products targeted at the needs expressed by those involved in urban flood damage
reduction.
Census data show that population growth in the arid and semi-arid west is outpacing population growth in other regions
of the country (Fig. 1). Six of the ten largest cities in the United States are in arid or semi-arid areas (Table 1). Three of these
(San Diego, Phoenix, and San Antonio) showed double-digit percentage increases in population between 1990 and 2000.
Dramatic population growth was seen in smaller cities over the same period, with seven of the ten largest percent increases in
population for cities over 50,000 population occurring in Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and California (Table 2).
Figure 1. Population growth in the arid and semi-arid west is outpacing population growth in other regions of the country.
ERDC/CRREL Technical Note 04-6
September 2004
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