Missouri and Mississippi River Flooding 2011: Introduction

The Missouri and Mississippi Rivers have been leveed, channelized and dammed to protect from flooding, facilitate the transportation of goods and to provide water for hydropower, irrigation, recreation and industrial and domestic uses. While generally successful in reducing the impacts of most floods, during 2011 these anthropomorphic changes were often overwhelmed, resulting in what may have been the most widespread series of large floods in the basins history.  As an introduction to our symposium we will provide an overview of these floods, describe the causes and some of the impacts and provide a timeline to provide context for the presentations to follow.