The same drawback, of course, applies to dams designed for flood control.

ECONOMIST: The Mekong river

In Pakistan, for example, the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM), created under the auspices of UNESCO, and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed the Integrated Flood Analysis System (IFAS), a risk-prevention system using data obtained via satellite.

UNESCO: Published in Mainichi Newspaper on 21 May 2012.

The Elwy reached its highest recorded level breaching flood defences designed to cope with a one in 100-year event, says the report.

BBC: St Asaph floods cost council house insurers ?1m

The rest of the church has also been designed to minimise future flood damage, with stone floors, and moveable chairs rather than pews.

BBC: Church hit by the Gloucestershire floods rededicated

The works are designed to protect the Erch flood plain against tidal flooding for 10 years while a permanent solution to the problem is investigated.

BBC: Flood defences being built

The Horsbere Brook Flood Alleviation Scheme is designed to reduce the risk of flooding in the Longlevens and Elmbridge area to less than 1% per year.

BBC: Longlevens and Elmbridge flood-prevention work finished

Mr Cable told the BBC's Andrew Marr show that it was designed to "pre-empt a flood" of new arrivals in the period before permanent arrangements came into force.

BBC: Cable defends temporary cap on non-EU migration

Although it wasn't designed to protect the town from a flood on the scale of last week's, it was enough protection that the Federal Emergency Management Agency did not require business or homeowners to purchase flood insurance.

CNN: Insurance not required, FEMA told flooded town

Dutch structures are typically designed to withstand a 1-in-10, 000 year flood event.

FORBES: A Dutch Solution for New York's Storm Surge Woes?

The agency said the work meant the city could deal with a one-in-100-year flood, instead of the current one-in-40-year event its defences were designed for.

BBC: Exeter flood defence improvement works to start in 2014