Why do people live in flooding areas?

People build houses, farms, and cities where they can, either to utilize the river for commerce or to benefit from the water supply. They are unlikely to abandon a location because of a single, or infrequent, disaster. On the Nile River, it flooded every year, and on the Yellow River in China almost every year, and in many cases this kept the land fertile.

However, in some cases, living on a riverbank or ocean shore can become too deadly a risk. This is reflected in the very high costs of home insurance in these areas. If a disastrous flood repeatedly occurs, or communities are regularly destroyed, then the only options are either improved protection methods (levees, increased elevations) or relocation to higher ground.