I don't think dike should be merged with levee. Levee is an American term. HoppinHill 13:41, 16 June 2007 (UTC)
Could someone please clarify: the article on dikes says that dikes and levees are the same thing and then continues to state that the oldest dikes were built in the Indus valley. This article says that the oldest levees were built along the Nile 3,000 years ago. What's going on here? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 89.139.112.107 (talk) 19:30, August 26, 2007 (UTC)
The question was asked in one of the edits what is a higher-high tide ... unfortunately the tide article does not cover in detail the differences in tides, but the short answer is the higher-high tide (HH) is the higher of the two high tides experienced in a tidal day. In mid-latitutdes there are two high tides and two low tides. These tides are further differentiated by adding "higher" or "lower". These designations are important in this article because levee overtopping is more likely to occur on a HH tide. What needs to be done is the tide article needs to be fixed (I've been creating a cartoon targetting the general public to illustrate flood and ebb tides along with the tides for tidal estuaries) -- but I think the levee article should stay as is,and any discussions of the physics of tides should be reserved for articles on tides. MCalamari 16:27, 27 September 2006 (UTC)
There is much more to be said about levees than the article mentions. The name of natural levees is misleading. It is true that the river banks are frequently higher than the flood plains, but that does not mean that they are levees, because practically they do not protect the flood plains against flooding, even for low floods, because in most cases they are not continuous and there are areas where the water can flow into the plains. One of the important problems in levees is the settlement of the levees. Therefore the compaction of the earth is extremely important. This is not mentioned in the article. Talking about protection, it is not only grass or concrete which is used for the protection. Stones and boulders are frequently used. The plantation of willows is not generally accepted as a good solution.Willows do not have deep roots and can pe uprooted by the floods. If this occurs, the hole in the embankment can be a weak spot leading to the breach of the dyke. The breaches of the embankments should be explained. First of all it should be understood that there is not 100% sure embankment, there is always a calculated risk of failure. There are discussions about the causes of the failure of the New Orleans embankment due to Katrina. However, regardless of the class of hurricane which occured in 2005, there definitely was a possibility of a worse hurricane hitting the area, with higher water levels which would have overtopped the embankment. All this has to be explained. And much more.The breaches of the embankments should be explained. First of all it should be understood that there is not 100% sure embankment, there is always a calculated risk of failure. There are discussions about the causes of the failure of the New Orleans embankment due to Katrina. However, regardless of the class of hurricane which occured in 2005, there definitely was a possibility of a worse hurricane hitting the area, with higher water levels which would have overtopped the embankment. All this has to be explained. And much more.The breaches of the embankments should be explained. First of all it should be understood that there is not 100% sure embankment, there is always a calculated risk of failure. There are discussions about the causes of the failure of the New Orleans embankment due to Katrina. However, regardless of the class of hurricane which occured in 2005, there definitely was a possibility of a worse hurricane hitting the area, with higher water levels which would have overtopped the embankment. All this has to be explained. And much more.there definitely was a possibility of a worse hurricane hitting the area, with higher water levels which would have overtopped the embankment. All this has to be explained. And much more.there definitely was a possibility of a worse hurricane hitting the area, with higher water levels which would have overtopped the embankment. All this has to be explained. And much more.
I think dike should not be merged with levee, because levee, though technically a type of dike, has all sorts of associations with the word that are primarily American and dike has all sorts of associations with the word that are Dutch. Considering the fact that the Dutch dike Stelling van Amsterdam is on the World Heritage list, I think you should keep the word dike. Jane 07:30, 4 March 2007 (UTC)
I think there is a misunderstanding here. I never said that the article on Levee should go, I simply feel that a separate article on 'Dike' should stay. The legend of the boy with his hand in the dike is older than the levees of California. For cultural reasons, the word 'Dike' is important in and of itself. Jane 05:59, 30 March 2007 (UTC)