Throughout time, humans have gravitated towards water. Historically, people lived close to rivers, lakes, or the coastline to gain access to sustainable sources of drinking water, food, transportation, and power. In modern society, people occupy the floodplain – the relatively flat land beside a body of water – because the land is often aesthetically pleasing and can sometimes be cheaper to build on. Development of the floodplains has dramatically increased flood exposure across Canada by altering the flow regime of surface water. To remedy this, extensive human mitigation efforts have been made countrywide, including the construction of dams, dikes and diversion channels, as well as channel dredging, realignment, and drainage of wetlands.