What flood defences are there

The table below shows central government funding divided by the three categories for each region of England. However, Yorkshire and the Humber currently has the most funding earmarked for pipeline projects. The big Thames estuary projects, for example, will continue through the century.

So, looking only at spending within the up to gives us the figures in the table below. The chart below shows the per capita figures for total flood defence spending dark blue and to only yellow. You can see that while London and the South East have the most per capita funding from the total of what is currently planned, Yorkshire and the Humber will receive the most per person in the period up to An investigation by the Press Association PA last year revealed that the economic formula used to allocate flood defence spending relies on the value of assets protected.

The current programme of flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes started in They brought widespread flooding to much of northern England, southern Scotland and Ireland. This was funded by an increase in Insurance Premium Tax from 9. As a result, the Environment Agency revised its programme to its current form.

It should be noted that not all the projects in the programme are still included in Dredging is also costly, sometimes harmful to the environment, and can weaken riverbanks as well as the foundations of bridges and weirs. After a major flood, large volumes of silt may accumulate in slow-flowing areas and the river may need to be dredged repeatedly. The money is due to be available from April this year and will help build 2, new flood and coastal defence schemes.

The funding was announced after a series of floods caused major damage in the Midlands, Wales and South Yorkshire. Flooding can come from all sorts of water sources, including groundwater, reservoirs and surface water. But cities and towns that lie on rivers or near the sea are most at risk. Generally speaking, increased rainfall causes flooding inland, while high tides and storms are behind much coastal flooding - and both can happen together.

Flooding has always been an occasional part of life in such areas, but experts warn that climate change is worsening the situation. In early , Environment Agency chairwoman Emma Howard Boyd said that some communities might eventually have to move entirely. Researchers have also warned that coastal areas in Northern Europe are also at higher risk of flooding in the coming years because of rising temperatures.

Flood planners 'must prepare for worst'. Farmers urged to do more over floods. Flooding 'devastating' to villagers. Agency 'worked socks off' for floods. Minister faces anger over flooding. We can also make private choices that help to slow the flow.

Is your roof water channelled into a rain-barrel, for example, and does this overflow into a wet part of your garden, or into the sewer? Though no single householder can make a big difference to the total flow, all householders acting together can make a difference. There are many beneficiaries of such changes — councils, water companies who treat the sewage and downstream residents. There is often great demand for local councils to supply sandbags at times of flooding, but sandbags are actually relatively ineffective compared to flood gates and other simple flood resilience measures that can be crucial in protecting homes from small floods.

Careful interior design also reduces the harm caused by floods. Plug sockets can be placed halfway up the wall, for example, and it can be ensured that ground floors are made of materials that easily washed down, such as concrete or tiles, rather than fitted carpets or wood that will need to be thrown out. People living in locations at risk of flooding should also sign up for flood warnings, and each household should have a flood plan — a clear idea about what needs to done if there is a flood warning and limited time available to protect your family and your possessions.

One of the difficulties of making these changes happen is that it means a new sort of water management, concerned not only with managing water but also partnering with the public. Engineers who predict floods and build defences are still needed, but to stimulate change in the practices of landowners, businesses and households, new listening, communication and coordination skills are paramount. There are also likely to be issues with parked cars and road closures that may delay the deployment of the defence to the point where deployment is too late.

Temporary barriers therefore require a considerable amount of preplanning to ensure that they can provide an effective defence. For any type of temporary defence, it is essential that the operational resources labour, plant and equipment , storage facilities access to and from, security, proximity to point of deployment , and the logistics of deployment are fully explored before the commitment to rely upon this approach is made.

Demountable flood defences are used where a permanent defence is unacceptable, usually because of the visual intrusion and loss of amenity that a permanent defence would entail. These are relatively new to the UK, but have recently been successfully installed and operated in Shrewsbury and Bewdley on the River Severn, and in parts of north Wales. Time is the key factor concerning the adoption of demountable defences.

There must be sufficient advance warning of a flood to allow the defence to be deployed. In addition, the advance warning must be reasonably reliable so as to avoid excessive precautionary deployment of the defences.

They are therefore suitable on the middle and lower reaches of the River Severn, for example, where flood conditions can be predicted days in advance, then confirmed with plenty of time to mobilise the erection team. Demountable defences may make use of standard panels, but they often have to be custom-designed to suit a particular location. They rely on built-in foundations for stability and ease of erection.

The components of the demountable defence must be stored relatively near to the site to reduce the risk of delays once the decision to mobilise has been made. A skilled erection team is required to ensure that the defence can be safely and securely erected in the limited time available.

For practical reasons, the length of a demountable defence is unlikely to exceed a few hundred metres. Whereas demountable defences may seem to offer the ideal solution where visual impact is a key factor, this form of defence tends to be expensive and there will always be a risk that the defence elements are not deployed in time to avert flooding. Theft of defence units, damage to built-in parts and delays in transporting the units to site can all conspire to make deployment problematic.

In July , the delivery of the components of a demountable defence at Upton-on-Severn was delayed due to the severe disruption to the transport infrastructure caused by surface water flooding.

The defence was not deployed in time and there was considerable flood damage as a result. In fact, had these demountable defences been deployed, they would have been overtopped due to the severity of the flood, but this example illustrates just how important it is to make sure that these defences can be successfully deployed in a flood event.

Coastal Elements.