Regrading is the process of raising and/or lowering the levels of land; such a project can also be referred to as a regrade. Regrading may be done on a small scale (as in preparation of a house site) or on quite a large scale (as in major reconfiguration of the terrain of a city, such as the Denny Regrade

Regrading in Seattle

The topography of central Seattle was radically altered by a series of regrades in the city's 1st century of urban settlement, in what might have been the largest such alteration of urban terrain at the time....

 in Seattle, Washington

Seattle, Washington

Seattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...

). Regrading is typically performed to make land flatter (in which case it is sometimes called levelling), but can have the side effect of making other nearby slopes steeper.

Reasons for regrading include:

• Allowing construction in areas that were previously too steep.
• Enabling transportation along routes that were previously too steep.
• Changing drainage patterns.
• Improving the stability of terrain.

Potential problems with regrading include:

• Biological/ecological impacts.
• Drainage problems for areas not taken into account in the regrading plan.