Human civilization began on the floodplains and that is where concentrated human civilization continues as this is the world's location and supply of food bearing fertile arable land. The flood sediment on the Red River valley enriches the land so as to be capable of producing 100 bushels of grain per acre. And with civilization comes technology.  Constructed in the early 1960s, the Manitoba flood management system is one of the world's most successful engineering feats, and second in size only to the Panama Canal. Indeed, Winnipeg does not flood, and is the only Canadian city with a sophisticated flood defence, recently expanded to handle a once/750 year event.