Paddle, anyone? After the damage wreaked in northern England by storms Desmond and Eva 鈥� and with storm Frank on the way 鈥� flood supremos in the UK have ordered an upheaval of the way the country handles flooding.
鈥淲e will need to have a complete rethink. We will need to move from not just providing better defences, but also looking at increasing resilience,鈥� said David Rooke, deputy chief executive of the Environment Agency earlier this week.
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The agency is mulling updating flood defences such as barriers and walls and making cities and homes better able to cope with more rainfall and flooding, seen as inevitable because of global warming.
Ideas could include flood-proofing by eliminating carpeting from the lower floors of buildings prone to flooding, and providing special plugs for toilet basins so they don鈥檛 overflow, deluging homes in sewage.
鈥淲e need a change in mindset,鈥� says Hannah Cloke, a flood expert at the University of Reading, UK. 鈥淚f we can鈥檛 protect ourselves from floodwaters, we need to learn to live with them. It鈥檚 knowing what to do when it does flood.鈥�
Living in Waterworld
鈥淲e could raise houses and infrastructure such as electricity substations and transport links on stilts, so they鈥檙e above the floodplain,鈥� says Cloke. 鈥淚t would be like living in Waterworld.鈥�
The official rethink will be outlined in the , announced by environment secretary Elizabeth Truss two weeks before storm Eva hit. She said the review would update 鈥渨orst-case-scenario鈥� planning, assess future impacts of climate change and evaluate the scale of risks to critical infrastructure.
Other elements of the review could include the extent to which river catchments and coastal areas could be adapted to better manage flood risk. This could include measures to improve the ability of floodplains to soak up heavy rains and floodwaters.
Cloke welcomes the review, saying it should focus on how risks are likely to change in different locations. 鈥淭hen they can start to assess how much higher barriers might need to be, how much extra it might cost and whether it鈥檚 worth doing,鈥� she says.
Image credit: Lindsey Parnaby/Anadolu Agency/Getty
