Flood management practice in northern California

This paper describes flood management practices in northern California and how operations are adjusted to fit the seasonal flood threat. The risk of a large flood is seasonal; the region is most vulnerable during the November through March rainy season. Rivers can rise from low flow levels to damaging floods within one to three days. Some measure of the size of the threat can be gained from the design flow of the lower Sacramento River floodway system, which is 17 300 m3 s−1.