Dikes/Levees
- Strategy:
- Adaptation
- Type of Intervention:
- Grey Infrastructure

Photo credit: South Florida Water Management District, CC BY-NS 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/, via Flickr East Coast Protective Levee | The 105-mile-long East Coast P… | Flickr
Dikes and levees are engineered embankments that run parallel to water bodies, and act as a barrier to confine water within specified areas. As such, they are a mechanism that helps to prevent floodwaters from land ingress.
Dikes are structures that are often used in to protect regions that would naturally be underwater. They are designed to hold back water to allow for land use. They are often situated in coastal environments, or regions below sea level. This measure is applicable across a range of building archetypes, including single-family homes, multi-unit residential buildings, commercial properties, and municipally owned and operated facilities—especially those located in low-lying or flood-prone areas where perimeter flood protection is critical.
Levees can either be natural or constructed structures, used to protect land that is typically not submersed by water, but is at risk of flooding. They are used to prevent the ingress of water within these regions during storm surge and other flood-producing events. They are often found along rivers, lakes and other water sources.
Often, dikes and levees are constructed from materials such as rock, earth, sand, clay, asphalt, metal, plastic, geosynthetics, or concrete.
Dikes and levees are suitable for regions such as:
- Low-lying regions
- Coastal regions
- Riverbanks
- Floodplains
[1] Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance, “Flood Risk Reduction Through Natural Retention and Physical Protection: The Problem with Residual Risk and the Levee Effect,” [Online]. Available: https://floodresilience.net/prec/recommendation/flood-risk-reduction-through-natural-retention-and-physical-protection-the-problem-with-residual-riskand-the-levee-effect/. [Accessed: 27-Aug-2024].
Savage et al. (2021) - Builder Guide to Site and Foundation Drainage
FEMA (2012) - Engineering Principles and Practices for Retrofitting Flood-Prone Residential Structures
Government of New Brunswick (2019) - Floodproofing: Protecting your home
CSA Z800-18 - Guideline on basement flood protection and risk reduction
FEMA (2015)
- Reducing Flood Risk to Residential Buildings That Cannot Be Elevated