colmatage

Updated: May 24, 2025

Hence, until that distant day when man shall devise means of extracting from rivers at flood, the whole volume of their suspended material and of depositing it at the same time on their banks, the system of cross-dikes and COLMATAGE must be limited to torrential streams transporting large proportions of sediment, and to the rivers of hot countries, like the Nile, where the saturation of the soil with water, and the securing of a supply for irrigation afterwards, are the main objects, while raising the level of the banks is a secondary consideration.

George P. Marsh - The Earth as Modified by Human Action