February 25, 2014

engineering a way out of the flooding

As the impact of winter flooding becomes clear, senior engineers and academics came to the SMC to talk about what engineering can (and can’t) do to prevent and reduce the impact of flooding in the UK.  

With expertise in water and flood risk management the panel were able to discuss the current approaches and technology in place and to discuss what should be considered in future flood planning to prevent a repeat of this winter including the effectiveness of dredging, swapping quick fixes for long term planning, and new coastal flood defences with power generation capabilities.

This briefing was held ahead of a lecture by David Rooke on Tuesday 25 February at the Royal Academy of Engineering.  Lessons learned in managing the winter floods – the engineering response will cover the recent winter floods, the engineering aspects of the Environment Agency’s flood response and engineers’ plans to address future floods.  Details of the lecture can be found here.

Speakers:

David Rooke MBE FREng, Executive Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management at the Environment Agency

Prof Jim Hall FREng, Professor of Climate and Environmental Risks and Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford

Prof Roger Falconer FREng, CH2M HILL Professor of Water Management and Director of the Hydro-environmental Research Centre at Cardiff University