With extreme weather events on the increase, here's how to keep your head above water

Water, water… well, not everywhere, but certainly some areas are seeing more of it than they ever wanted to. Places such as Boscastle, Carlisle and Tewkesbury have become synonymous with flooding, and over the past few years we’ve become accustomed to seeing pictures like these on the news. These floods have brought trauma and great financial loss to those affected, and displaced many from their homes. So what’s causing this devastation?

‘It’s impossible to ascribe single events to climate change,’ says Phil Rothwell, head of flood risk management policy at the Environment Agency. ‘But since 1998 we’ve had a series of very wet years for which, as far as we can see, climate change must be partially responsible and it’s highly likely that floods will happen more often and will become less predictable. The potential damage done by these floods could also escalate. There are already half a million houses at high risk from flooding – this means they may flood more frequently than once in 100 years – and there are 2.2 million homes on UK floodplains. ‘We’re still building on floodplains, but less so,’ Phil says. ‘Government guidance has got tougher, and over the past few years we’ve seen a significant reduction in the amount of planning applications regarding floodplains.’ However, it’s just not practical to stop building on floodplains altogether.

Take the Thames Gateway, for example, an area east of London earmarked for massive development to ease housing shortages. Much of this area is floodplain; yet the Thames Barrier and other river defences protect London and its environs, so homes in this area risk flooding only once every 2,000 years. But not every area can be protected in this manner. Although the Treasury is increasing annual spending on flood defences from £600million to £800million over the next three years, it’s neither affordable nor practical to build flood walls everywhere. ‘The water has to go somewhere. There are more sustainable ways to protect homes than building barriers,’ says Phil Rothwell. Plains can be developed to absorb excess water, channelling it into areas such as agricultural land.

It’s impossible to stop floods happening, but you can reduce their impact. ‘The idea is to get the water out, and people back to their normal lives as quickly as possible,’ says James Kavanagh, head of land group at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). ‘In Tewkesbury, there was one development with flood-resilient measures where the residents were back in their homes three days after floods subsided. But there are people in Hull still living in caravans after last year’s floods. There’s no point having a King Canute mentality. We’re never going to stop the water, so we have
to learn to manage it better.’

Useful Contacts

The Environment Agency: Environment Agency
The National Food Forum: National Flood Forum
The Association of British Insurers: www.abi.org.uk
Planning Portal: www.planningportal.gov.uk
The RICS: www.rics.org (Guide – What to do before, during and after a flood)
English Heritage: www.english-heritage.org.uk
(Advice on how to protect listed homes from floods)

Words: Joanna Booth Images: The Environment Agency