A clean-up operation is continuing following flooding during Storm Chandra, as fresh weather warnings are issued for more heavy rain this week.
Wexford, Dublin and Wicklow were among the counties worst hit on Tuesday with many rivers bursting their banks.
Trinity College Geography Professor Mary Bourke has told RTÉ's Behind the Story podcast we need to think of rivers as more than just water.
"A river is not just the water, the river is not just the two banks: the river is an entire system that has flat areas beside it that the river built by flooding that is used by us for agriculture and now we're building on it," she said.
"We really bound the river in bricks and metal and it’s going to burst – of course it is - because it wants to just go home, as it were, in floods that’s what it’s supposed to do.
"So, thinking you can engineer your way out of that is something we need to revisit".
Prof Bourke believes flood planning needs to be more nature based.
"The backlog is we have changed nature: so, nature-based solutions is about pulling back from that complete alteration of the natural landscape and finding ways to restore it.
"It has this equilibrium inherent in its own system… we’ve come in and we’ve changed that."
Prof Bourke said she understands that housing is needed, but we need to be sensible when building on or near flood plains.
Fran and Karen also discuss the issue of tipping, as new research shows three out of four people would like to see businesses make it easier to opt out of tipping.
The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission study also found that one-fifth of people have recently paid a bill that included an unexpected extra charge.
You can listen to Behind the Story which is available on the RTÉ Radio Player.
You can also find episodes on Apple here, or on Spotify here.
