[mbynack]

I think there are a lot of factors that aren't discussed. If you remove all the vegetation from a hillside, you will increase erosion and loss of topsoil. If the logging operation removes the trees and seeds the hillside with a ground cover, then the logging can be done with little risk.

[Our_Man_In_Gough_Island]

No, what the report is saying is that very large disaster-type floods are not driven by vegetation cover or lack of it. Huge floods have different causes and any amount of vegetation will not turn back that type of massive water overflow. The report does state in on a small scale, such as you indicate, vegetation cover can prevent minor, small flooding.