Floodplain facts for kids

When a flood plain is not flooded it may be good farm land

A floodplain is the flat area around a river that is covered in times of flood. A floodplain is a very fertile area due to the rich alluvium (fine sediment) deposited by floodwaters. This makes floodplains a good place for agriculture. A build-up of alluvium on the banks of a river can create levees, which raise the river bank.

Images for kids

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  Paraná River floodplain, at its confluence with the headstream of the Paranaíba on the right and the Verde River, near Panorama, Brazil

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  The floodplain after a one-in-10-year flood on the Isle of Wight

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  Gravel floodplain of a glacial river near the Snow Mountains in Alaska, 1902

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  The Laramie River meanders across its floodplain in Albany County, Wyoming, 1949.

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  This aggradational floodplain of a small meandering stream in La Plata County, Colorado, is underlain by silt deposited above a dam formed by a terminal moraine left by the Wisconsin Glacier.

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  A low-lying field in Achterwehr Germany inundated by overflow from a nearby waterway.