This is most definitely the case. It has also caused enormous problems for places where flooding was already a threat, by removing the natural buffering capabilities that places like wetlands have.
In fact, a whole field (stormwater engineering) exists to mitigate this.
The again, neither insurance nor building pricing wants to reflect the new reality. A whole generation has invested "safe" in buildings and companies along "virtual flash flood funels" and embracing truth is like accepting your life's saving burning away.
One wonders when the first realistic model based tax write off ahead of time goes to court and pokes a hole into that reality. As in "I pay no taxes for what is most likely destroyed over the next ten years and will repay if it doesn't happen"..
> In fact, a whole field (stormwater engineering) exists to mitigate this.
I haven't checked in lately. How are they doing getting over the age-old "Drain! Drain! Drain!! Faster! Faster! Faster!" mantra?
This ethic of course only contributes to the problems of flash flooding, lack of buffer, lack of aquifer recharge, and (ultimately) alternating drought/flood cycles.
This drain, drain, faster faster is a question I've been keen to get to the bottom off as I live in an area covered by upcoming River Thames Scheme to help prevent flooding. As I'm doing a rewilding course I wanted to find out how much natural flood management techniques they were using as nature's solution is to generally hold water as long as possible in the landscape to slow down peak flow, as peak flow is generally what causes the worst flooding events. This also has knock on benefits helping mitigate pollution and soil erosion etc.
I've been to two consultations and am still none the wiser, though I've another consultation to go to.
Whether this is tree/vegetation cover or beavers (despite being in the middle of surburban sprawl, Ealing have secured funding for beavers as a potentially cheaper solution than hard infrastructure for flood mitigation and a significant amount of the beaver costs were the fencing to keep them in despite England having some wild beavers).
Similarly I've seen the Pennine Way in the South Pennines turn into a fast flowing stream during one period of wet weather due to the inability of the land to hold all the water and houses there get flooded as well.
Obviously the clash here is between the human and natural ways of doing things, building static houses on floodplains doesn't fit with more chaotic natural solutions in a dynamicly changing landscape with increasingly erratic weather patterns...
So here in the hill country of Texas housing developments/cities need to build so many feet of storage retention ponds per house built and impermeable roadway laid. Depending on the size of the development these are decently sizes structures and an off the cuff guess on costs is between 500k and a few million (+lost land to build more houses on) so it's a sizeable expense of developing. Cities themselves don't want to pay for and maintain these structures so they instead farm it off to a MUD/PUD.
By now, I assume everywhere in the developed world requires retention ponds to be built to offset whatever land gets paved and/or is no longer permeable due to development.
Usually among the most costly line items of construction.
At least recently there are a lot of projects in various places to essentially build long pipe tunnels to hold water for treatment in storms and not overwhelm treatment plants.
DC is building one, London is building one, Paris is building one to make the Seine swimmable for the Olympics, etc.
> I live in Washington, though, and we sure have a lot of man-made storage ponds.
I can think of some spots where four or five adjacent suburban developments will all have their own pond/catchment tucked away, although their appearance and attractiveness varies.
I'm out duck hunting right now and there's quite a lot of very very damp farmland in the Seattle/Tacoma/Everett metroplex. The river valley behind microsoft would be idiotic to build anything bu farms and golf courses on (and the golf course is unplayable half the year). The term colloidal substance describes these areas well. Also a ton of water retention areas on the hills, otherwise stuff would wash out very easily.
In fact, a whole field (stormwater engineering) exists to mitigate this.