By Jeffrey H. Jackson, associate professor of history at Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee, and author of "Paris Under Water," the story of the 1910 flood in the French capital. The views expressed here are solely his.
Paris is flooding, and it should give us reason to pause and reflect on whether our cities are prepared for the impact of climate change.
This month marks the anniversary of the worst natural disaster in the modern history of Paris. On January 28, 1910, the Seine reached a height of nearly 28 feet, pushing up into the city's streets.
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In some cities, such as Annapolis, Maryland, outdated flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency have prompted local authorities to produce their own more accurate estimates of high-risk zones to deal with the increased frequency of "normal" flooding. Last year's flooding of Houston following Hurricane Harvey surprised few urban planners who had been warning for years that the city was growing in ways that added significant risk.
Urban areas should rethink the designation of "100-year" flood zones and the like to account for climate change. And they should consider questions of drainage -- how water gets out as well as how it gets in. Urban development usually goes hand in hand with asphalt and other materials that are nonporous so water runs without being absorbed by soil.
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