Flooding, already the largest hazard facing humankind, is becoming more frequent and affecting more people. Adapting to flooding must consider more than just water to encapsulate the effects

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We acknowledge the Jack and Richard Threet chair in Sedimentary Geology (J.B.), a Canadian NSERC Discovery Grant (P.A.) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council

(NE/S015817/1) (S.E.D.) for funding that enabled our collaboration on this research perspective. We are grateful to K. Cook, P. Best and R. Wilson for discussions. AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS

AND AFFILIATIONS * Department of Geology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA Jim Best * Department of Geography and GIS, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

Urbana, IL, USA Jim Best * Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA Jim Best * Ven Te Chow Hydrosystems Laboratory,

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, USA Jim Best * Department of Geography and Environment, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada Peter Ashmore * Department

of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK Stephen E. Darby Authors * Jim Best View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed 

Google Scholar * Peter Ashmore View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar * Stephen E. Darby View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Jim Best. ETHICS DECLARATIONS COMPETING INTERESTS The authors declare no competing interests. PEER REVIEW PEER REVIEW

INFORMATION _Nature Sustainability_ thanks Douglas Edmonds and Hans Middelkoop for their contribution to the peer review of this work. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT

THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Best, J., Ashmore, P. & Darby, S.E. Beyond just floodwater. _Nat Sustain_ 5, 811–813 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-022-00929-1 Download citation *

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