I meant to say that in the U.S. there are towns on the Mississippi being abandoned and rebuilt on higher ground. This is cheaper than trying to contain the river with dikes. Flooding is natural and people have to learn to live with it.
Here is a news story about a town they moved uphill, two miles away: http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=5214038&page=1#.UNCBwTVGJ5Q - Jed
