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<br />. <br /> <br />to each in the flood of January 1969. However, <br />with regard to deaths, 19 lives were lost in <br />drownings and 12 lives were lost in landslides. <br /> <br />The bulk of the urban damage in the flood of <br />January 1969 occurred in areas of urban sprawl. <br />In those areas, development plans and related <br />zoning did not prevent the occupancy of land <br />exposed to the hazards of inundation and (or) <br />de bris damage, and the improvement and <br />development of drainage of flood-control <br />facilities did not keep pace with expanded <br />urbanization. Ideally, adequate zoning and <br />drainage design should be incorporated in the <br />planning stage of any new development. <br /> <br />The narrow coastal plain in the region is now <br />almost fully occupied and housing is moving <br />into the upland areas in the alluvial cones and in <br />the canyons. To a large degree the move to the <br />uplands is for aesthetic reasons as people look <br />.-cor homes with a view. However, it is the upland <br />.reas that are hardest to protect because of the <br />myriad small watercourses, each of which <br />requires individual control measures for <br />protection against inundation and debris <br />damage. A high degree of protection now exists <br />along the larger streams in the older established <br />areas on the coastal plain. The greatest <br />concentration of future effort will most likely <br />be on the protection of urbanized areas in the <br />uplands. <br /> <br />( <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS <br /> <br />Urban sprawl is defined here as the rapid <br />expansion of suburban development without <br />complete planning for the optimum control and <br />development of water and associated land <br />resources. By that definition any suburban area <br />is an area of urban sprawl if its zoning <br />ordinances do not take into consideration the <br />hazards of inundation and debris or landslide <br />damage, or if its drainage and flood-control <br />facilities are not fully developed. During the <br />calamitous floods of January 1969 in <br />south-coastal California, flood-control measures <br />were effective in minimizing flood damages in <br />areas that they were designed to protect. It was <br />in the areas of urban sprawl that the largest part <br />of the total physical damage of $62 million <br />occurred. <br /> <br />The construction of additional <br />flood-protection facilities will assure some <br />reduction in the damage from future floods. <br />However, the problems associated with <br />flood flows and stonn-induced mudslides can <br />never be completely solved; only an <br />accomodation to those problems can be <br />achieved. The most effective accomodation is <br />that based on adherence to a truly <br />comprehensive regional plan. <br /> <br />BII <br /> <br />R U. s. COVERN::'lENT PRIKTlNG OFFICE: 1&70 0 - 371-0&2 <br />