Adapting Urban Areas to Flooding
Most properties, businesses and related infrastructure at risk of flooding are in urban areas, where more than 80% of the UK population live. This note summarises how urban areas can be better managed to adapt to flood risk from rivers, surface water, sewers and ground water.
FloodingPlanning
Briefing
Key points in this POSTnote include:
- Extreme rainfall events are predicted to become more frequent and severe in the future as the climate changes.
- Existing urban defences and drainage infrastructure cannot cope with increasingly extreme events, but urban areas can be adapted to reduce vulnerabilities to flooding.
- There is no single solution to manage urban flood risks: a portfolio of solutions will be needed that include traditional flood defences but also flood resilience measures.
- Urban drainage systems that mimic a natural landscape can reduce surface flooding and provide other benefits.
Acknowledgements
POSTnotes are based on literature reviews and interviews with a range of stakeholders and are externally peer reviewed. POST would like to thank interviewees and peer reviewers for kindly giving up their time during the preparation of this briefing, including:
- Adam Cambridge, Atkins*
- Professor David Balmforth, MWH*
- Stephen Wielebski, HBF*
- Manuela Escarameia, HR Wallingford*
- Andy Tagg, HR Wallingford*
- Bridget Woods-Ballard, HR Wallingford*
- Hugh Ellis, Town and Country Planning Association
- Bob Vaughan, Natural Resources Wales*
- Paul Shaffer, CIRIA
- Professor Chris Kilsby, Newcastle University
- Professor Richard Dawson, Newcastle University*
- Professor Richard Ashley, University of Sheffield
- Professor Roger Falconer, Cardiff University
- Stacy Sharman, Defra*
- Kirsten Thorburn, SEPA
- Andrew J Eden, Environment Agency*
- Ruth M Allin, Environment Agency*
- Dr Stephen Garvin, BRE
- Laura Hughes, Association of British Insurers
*Denotes people who acted as external reviewers of the briefing.
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