Agricultural landscapes are more sensitive to
climatic variability than natural landscapes because
the drainage, tillage, and grazing will typically reduce
water infiltration and increase rates and magnitudes
of surface runoff and pollutant loading. High-resolution
floodplain stratigraphy of the last two centuries
show that accelerated runoff associated with agricultural
land use has increased the magnitudes of floods
across a wide range of recurrence frequencies (Knox
2001).