In his influential dissertation entitled "Human adjustment to floods," published in 1945 by the University of Chicago Department of Geography, Gilbert F. White argued that an over-reliance on structural works in the United States had increased damages caused by flooding rather than decreasing them. He argued famously in this work, one of the most important contributions made by a geographer in 20th century North America (Hinshaw 2006) that "Floods are an act of God, but flood losses are largely an act of man". Public confidence in structural works increased occupance of, and building on floodplains. The reasons for an increase in flood damages caused by reliance on structural works can be associated with design standards, and over-confidence on such adaptations. Structural works were built to certain design specifications (for example, the 100-year flood, or 1% flood). In instances where the design specifications were exceeded (in the case of a 150-year flood, etc.), the structures were prone to failure, thus causing catastrophic loss in over-developed floodplains (White et al., 1958).

A recent and relevant example of the impacts of false-confidence on structural works can be seen on Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans, during the summer of 2005. A significant portion of New Orleans is located in coastal floodplains, protected by structural mitigation mechanims (floodwalls and levees.) Supposedly the structural mechanisms were built to withstand a category 3 hurricane design standard. Hurricane Katrina, a category 3 hurricane when it hit New Orleans, did not exceed the design standards of the structural mitigation mechanisms. Catatrophic flooding caused extensive damage and death would have been prevented in the Army Corps of Engineers built the flood walls correctly.