The purpose of this paper is to describe from a critical and historical perspective the employment of structural works at global, regional and local levels without separation from their context given by environmental, economical, political, social and cultural factors. The authors provoke the reader to reflect about the role of humans in the process of adaption to flooding. The first part of the paper addresses the definition and classification of structural works from different perspectives, the second part describes the context in which they are implemented and concepts such as 'hydro-politics', the third part shows structural works' evolution along Danube and at Gostinu study area level.