Dredging would not have stopped massive UK floods - New Scientist

[easynow]

Rainfall in England and Wales in December and January has been the heaviest since records began 240 years ago. The rains have been exacerbated by conditions in Indonesia and the tropical west Pacific, according to the UK Met Office. Heavy rains there in November, plus warm seas, combined to redirect and strengthen the North Atlantic jet stream, the air current carrying the downpours to the UK.

As the waters rose, residents blamed the Environment Agency and its embattled chief Chris Smith for failing to allow floodwater to escape by adequately dredging rivers.

But hydrologists contacted by New Scientist say that dredging alone would not have stopped the flooding. "Given the amount of rain that has fallen, you could have doubled the carrying capacity of every drainage channel in Somerset, at huge cost, and large parts would still have flooded," says Hannah Cloke at the University of Reading.

"The solution for residents and communities is to adapt to living with it," Cloke says. "They shouldn't expect the government or the Environment Agency to protect them from a flood that's impossible to protect against."

http://www.newscientist.com/article...e-stopped-massive-uk-floods.html#.UvkwuWJ_ty0

 

[Cheshire Cat]

Article written by experts who know what they are talking about.

Therefore according to the logic of Eric "the Pieman" Pickles, it can't be true.

 

[Machiavelli]

Article written by experts who know what they are talking about.

Therefore according to the logic of Eric "the Pieman" Pickles, it can't be true.

Pickles and logic in the same sentence. Now fancy that.

 

[skipper734]

Here are some more facts from a guy that knows his history.

http://www.waterpowermagazine.com/f...-a-sad-tale-of-ignorance-and-neglect-4172602/

 

[Indy]

Stuff Somerset, when are they going to dredge the River Adur?

 

[Leekbrookgull]

When you read the bit on ditchs/hedgerows etc that rings true around here. Hedges allowed to grow until cut in autumm (with cuttings just left on the road) culverts/ditchs full of weeds/rubbish,we have all seen this. Roadside drains blocked/never cleared. The list goes on.

 

[Leekbrookgull]

Stuff Somerset, when are they going to dredge the River Adur?

Dredgeing is not the complete solution.

 

[Fef]

I love the quotation on TV today: "It would be better to use Eric Pickles as a sand bag."

 

[HawkTheSeagull]

If it was a flood of gravy Pickles could just eat it all and save us millions.

Perhaps we should get MILLIONS of cartons of Bisto and just empty it onto the Somerset levels and the Thames Valley - should be sorted within a day or so.

 

[Algernon]

"Dredging" just has to be a euphemism surely. If it isn't, it blooming well should be.

 

[Leighgull]

Is it just me...hopefully it is...who finds it hard to muster sympathy when I see very proper middle class country folk I. Twinset and pearls clutching their pedigree spaniels to their chest and telling us that their Aga is ruined and the gardener had run out of buckets?

I wonder if Cameron and co would have moved the army in if it was Merseyside or Wolverhampton being flooded rather than multi million pound houses in the Thames Valley. Blaming the Environment Agency for this is just a fvcking disgrace.

 

[fat old seagull]

Rainfall in England and Wales in December and January has been the heaviest since records began 240 years ago. The rains have been exacerbated by conditions in Indonesia and the tropical west Pacific, according to the UK Met Office. Heavy rains there in November, plus warm seas, combined to redirect and strengthen the North Atlantic jet stream, the air current carrying the downpours to the UK.

As the waters rose, residents blamed the Environment Agency and its embattled chief Chris Smith for failing to allow floodwater to escape by adequately dredging rivers.

But hydrologists contacted by New Scientist say that dredging alone would not have stopped the flooding. "Given the amount of rain that has fallen, you could have doubled the carrying capacity of every drainage channel in Somerset, at huge cost, and large parts would still have flooded," says Hannah Cloke at the University of Reading.

"The solution for residents and communities is to adapt to living with it," Cloke says. "They shouldn't expect the government or the Environment Agency to protect them from a flood that's impossible to protect against."

http://www.newscientist.com/article...e-stopped-massive-uk-floods.html#.UvkwuWJ_ty0

Perhaps they should extend their Geographical knowledge as far as the Netherlands.

 

[dougdeep]

Dredgeing is not the complete solution.

Yes, that's what the thread is about.

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Dredgeing is not the complete solution.

According to my Shoreham houseboat mate his boat sits 2 feet higher on the silt than a decade ago when they stopped dredging.
The minor water ingress only up the man made slipways on the coast road overtopped by less than 6 inches and not near this level since or before.

 

[Mr Bridger]

Rainwater harvesting is the answer.

All new build from 2016 will have to incorporate either rainwater or greywater harvesting ( areas will be decided) and all new housing estates will have to incorporate SUDS to alleviate the deluge we get from our skies.

I have just fitted my own RWH system and trailing now to work out payback times etc, but it just makes sense to reuse rainwater wherever we can.

Think about it, We still used drinking water to flush our shite away!

The first 3 months of usage I have monitored just the wc,s and saved 500ltrs a week on just flushing the toilets.
I've just connected the washing machine this week and now that figure has double so potential savings of a 1000lts , 1 cubic meter, 220 gallons or a tonne of water, whichever way you want to look at it if everyone did it then it would be a huge amount of water redistributed rather than put back into the already over stressed drainage system.

 

[Normal Rob]

Stuff Somerset, when are they going to dredge the River Adur?

Thanks.

And dredging may not have prevented all of the flooding, but it would have been a darn site better. Some of the images of the Levels are truly staggering.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Is it just me...hopefully it is...who finds it hard to muster sympathy when I see very proper middle class country folk I. Twinset and pearls clutching their pedigree spaniels to their chest and telling us that their Aga is ruined and the gardener had run out of buckets?

I wonder if Cameron and co would have moved the army in if it was Merseyside or Wolverhampton being flooded rather than multi million pound houses in the Thames Valley. Blaming the Environment Agency for this is just a fvcking disgrace.

No, it isn't just you. Although I feel sorry for all those affected so badly, one does have some choice as to where one lives. I can remember when I was about 8, 50plus years ago, when we moved house and my mother was insistent on moving to "higher ground.". If you move in to a renovated water-mill somewhere, you surely must expect the possibility of unwelcome water in your kitchen.

 

[Creaky]

No, it isn't just you. Although I feel sorry for all those affected so badly, one does have some choice as to where one lives. I can remember when I was about 8, 50plus years ago, when we moved house and my mother was insistent on moving to "higher ground.". If you move in to a renovated water-mill somewhere, you surely must expect the possibility of unwelcome water in your kitchen.

It's NOT the houses being flooded that is the problem - it is the land - less than 50 houses actually flooded in the Somerset levels - tens of thousands of acres of farmland flooded!

Load of good living on higher ground if all the surrounding area is flooded!

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

Perhaps they should extend their Geographical knowledge as far as the Netherlands.

There is a letter in the Guardian today from a chartered engineer which points out that potential solutions have probably been planned at some point for all the places which are currently in trouble, but they have not been implemented because of cost. The Netherlands spends ten times what we do per head of population on flood/sea defences.

I am not saying we should spend that much more, but it is a perhaps a question of do you spend the money, or do you cope with the consequences.

 

[Creaky]

There is a letter in the Guardian today from a chartered engineer which points out that potential solutions have probably been planned at some point for all the places which are currently in trouble, but they have not been implemented because of cost. The Netherlands spends ten times what we do per head of population on flood/sea defences.

I am not saying we should spend that much more, but it is a perhaps a question of do you spend the money, or do you cope with the consequences.

It would be interesting to know how much is spent by the environment agency in an area like Brighton compared to that spent say in Guildford. I suspect that keeping sea defences in order is a lot more expensive than keeping the River Wey clear.