It's expecting too much of the 'system', with too many demands on the 'system', with too few resources for the 'system' (mainly economic) causing a breakdown of the 'system'. A flood plain is just one issue in the big picture. Civic/state/provincial (or whatever) governments are dealing with many, many issues trying to resolve them all. Trying to satisfy all the peeples. What resources they have (mainly economic) are spread thin. What manpower resources that are availble are broken into little cells to deal with all the problems, communication becomes non-existant, helpless apathy evolves,resulting in spinning that basically goes nowhere.

Or ... maybe we all are stoopid.