Andrew A. Humphreys and the Development of Hydraulic Engineering: Politics and Technology in the Army Corps of Engineers, 1850-1950

Reuss, Martin

doi:10.2307/3104527

Cited by 14 publications

(12 citation statements)

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“…In this period, there were three niche visions on flood control: (i) building reservoirs, (ii) levees, and (iii) jetties for flood control. The key person for the first vision was Charles S. Ellet Jr., one of the best-known engineers of his time, who associated the growing flood problem with increased cultivation in the valley [71]. Ellet recommended the practicability and value of building reservoirs on the Mississippi's tributaries to reduce flooding.…”

Section: Niche Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the Role of Visions, Agency, and Niches in Historical Transitions in Watershed Management in the Lower Mississippi River

Voorn

Quist

2018

Water

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This paper analyses five major transitions in watershed management in the Lower Mississippi River from the early 19th century to the present. A conceptual framework is developed for analysing the role of visions, agency, and niches in water management transitions and applied to a historical case on water management in the Lower Mississippi River. It is shown that water management regimes change over time and that major transitions were preceded by niches, in which new visions were developed and empowered. The case shows that: (i) emerging visions play an important role in guiding transitions; (ii) agency enables the further diffusion of visions and niches; (iii) vision champions play an important role in transitions, but are not decisive; (iv) each transition has led to an extension of the number of societal functions provided, which has led to more complex water management regimes in which functions are combined and integrated; and (v) external landscape factors are important, as they can lead to awareness and urgency in important decision making processes.

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Section: Niche Developmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysing the Role of Visions, Agency, and Niches in Historical Transitions in Watershed Management in the Lower Mississippi River

Voorn

Quist

2018

Water

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“…"Although not one of these facts may be considered itself conclusive, it must be allowed that together they afford good grounds for doubting the recent alluvial character of the bed of the Mississippi, even as far down as the head of passes", Humphreys concluded erroneously (Pabis, 1998, p. 440). He argued that since the bed of the Mississippi River was made of clay, it could not be sufficiently "scoured" through flow restriction (Reuss, 1985).…”

Section: The Birth Of "Levees-only"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…An appointed commission was headed by Gen. G. K. Warren, who had served under Humphreys. Henry Abbot, who coauthored the Humphreys report, sat on the commission board (Reuss, 1985). The Warren Commission conducted no fieldwork and looked only at Humphreys' report.…”

Section: The Birth Of "Levees-only"mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Capt. John Millis of the Fourth Mississippi River Commission District recommended construction of two artificial outlets in the levees to disperse floodwaters (Reuss, 1985). At a 1911 National Rivers and Harbors Convention, Corps' Chief Engineer W. H. Bixby said individual Corps engineers recognized the need for multipurpose developments, including power, irrigation, drainage, and bank and levee protection.…”

Section: Multipurpose Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

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River Activism, “Levees-Only” and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

Randolph

2018

MaC

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This article investigates media coverage of 19th and early 20th century river activism and its effect on federal policy to control the Mississippi River. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' "levees-only" policy-which joined disparate navigation and flood control interests-is largely blamed for the Great Flood of 1927, called the largest peacetime disaster in American history. River activists organized annual conventions, and later, professional lobbies organized media campaigns up and down the Mississippi River to sway public opinion and pressure Congress to fund flood control and river navigation projects. Annual river conventions drew thousands of delegates such as plantation owners, shippers, bankers, chambers of commerce, governors, congressmen, mayors and cabinet members with interests on the Mississippi River. Public pressure on Congress successfully captured millions of federal dollars to protect property, drain swamps for development, subsidize local levee districts and influence river policy.

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“…The report, issued in 1861, concluded that £oods were best controlled by relying solely on levees, dirt embankments designed to contain £ood waters. The study was innovative in its methodology and became a classic in the literature of river hydraulics, but its`levees only' conclusion became the Corps' dogmatic approach to all £ood control problems, maintained long after progress in the ¢eld cast doubts on the validity of this position (Morgan 1971, Reuss 1985). In 1927 a major £ood breached the levees on the lower Mississippi River, inundating 18,000 square miles, killing 250 people, and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in damage (Frank 1930, pp.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Falling Water: The Origins of Direct Federal Participation in the US Electric Utility Industry, 1902–1933

Hausman

Neufeld

1999

Ann Public Coop Econ

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The federal government's role as a direct producer in a non-defense, non-distressed American industry is unique to electric power. This participation arose during the ¢rst three decades of the twentieth century; it was politically controversial then and remains so today. We seek to explain how and why the federal government got into the electric utility business. The convergence of technological, economic, and political forces paved the way for federal participation. The growth of long-distance transmission networks and the success of the Progressive movement were important factors. Because so many dam sites with hydroelectric potential were on public lands in western states, and because hydroelectricity could help pay for those dams, even conservative Republicans like Herbert Hoover came to accept the involvement of the federal government. After the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932, the federal government accepted the task with enthusiasm as part of a plan for the economic development of entire river basins. &CIRIEC 1999. Published by Blackwell Publishers,

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Andrew A. Humphreys and the Development of Hydraulic Engineering: Politics and Technology in the Army Corps of Engineers, 1850-1950

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Analysing the Role of Visions, Agency, and Niches in Historical Transitions in Watershed Management in the Lower Mississippi River

Analysing the Role of Visions, Agency, and Niches in Historical Transitions in Watershed Management in the Lower Mississippi River

River Activism, “Levees-Only” and the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927

Falling Water: The Origins of Direct Federal Participation in the US Electric Utility Industry, 1902–1933

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