plants to prevent flooding

Hi, I'm working on two design projects at the moment for my Permaculture diploma which are suburban gardens located next to rivers/streams/burns/brooks (im trying to be multilingual here!) which are prone to flood the gardens. Does anyone have any recommendations on where to find info on plants that will help dry out the gardens and minimise flooding - and of course they were edible or had any other use then that would be great! I'm based in Scotland so a temperate climate (23C on a warm sunny day, -10C on exceptional cold winter days).

Thanks a lot,

Carole

Cattails are notorious for drying out wet ground, and have many uses in addition to being edible, if not, to my taste, especially palatable.

If you sign up for Geoff Lawton's website (free) you can watch a video about some folks who live right next to a flooding river who made their little farmlet floodproof through careful planning and structures.

http://geofflawton.com/free-videos/

http://geofflawton.com/videos/flat-land-and-flash-floods/