173 



The Relation of Lakes to Floods, with Special 



Reference to Certain Lakes and Streams 



OF Indiana. 



Will Scott. 



The problem of flood prevention is a part of a larger problem which 

 we have considered either in a fragmentary way or not at all. This 

 larger problem is thie development of the waters of our state as a natural 

 resource. To regard a river as a menace because its higher stages, under 

 present conditions, are destructive ; or to consider a lake to be a waste 

 area because it can not be plowed, indicates a very limited insight or 

 selfish motives. Some of the factors that must be considered in the de- 

 velopment of th.is resource are power sites, building sites, water supply 

 for cities, water for irrigation, places for recreation, avenues for trans- 

 portation, and fish production. 



It may be regarded as self-evident, that a whole drainage system 

 must be treated as a unit. It is impossible to develop one power site, 

 withv'ut affecting another; floods prevented in the upper course of a 

 stre.-au will make them less destructive in its lower course, etc. 



The thing that affects most fundamentally these elements of value in a 

 stream is its rate of discharge. The work of Tucker ('ID has shown that 

 not nearly all of the power sites in Indiana are developed; and that 

 those that are developed are limited in value because of the low minimum 

 discharge. High banks along streams are worth much more for building 

 sites than for farm land. The more constant the stream level is. the more 

 these sites are worth. And so with all of the values that attach to a 

 .stream ; the more regular the discharge, the greater these values are. 



The attention of every one is attracted to the great losses that are 

 caused by floods ; but few recognize the decreases in \alue that are occa- 

 sioned by the low stages of streams. The losses by floods are sudden and 

 dramatic. They are more or less irregular in their occurrence, while the 

 losses caused by low stages are constant and inconspicuous. The losses 



