WET News

JUNE 2014 WET NEWS 7 • Narrow thinking is the enemy on flood defence • As politicians from all parties continue to debate the effectiveness of past policy in managing the floods back at the beginning of the year, it's interesting to see how much of the debate has centred on how much money has, or hasn't been spent, says ACO Water Management's Richard Hill. S ince 2007, Defra has spent over £4B on flood defences – and identifying where this investment has delivered tangible results would undoubt- edly prove invaluable, to inform future policy and measures. When we moved into the new millennium it would be true to say that Britain was lack- ing normative policy. Most work concentrated on the refinement of techniques to implement existing policy but looking back over more recent years, govern- mental bodies have moved for- ward – but slowly – and policy is still not as joined up as it could be. However, our engineering and planning communities have made progress despite this – with those flood defences and surface water management solutions that have been intro- duced unquestionably making a huge difference to towns all over the country. Best practice Looking beyond the headlines, in many cases the reach of the flooding impact has been reduced. In fact, in the 2007 floods ten times the number of properties were flooded than in recent months and the Environment Agency (EA) has estimated that more than 800,000 homes were protected by flood schemes this time round. In the current climate, it would therefore be extremely valuable to use this experience to identify best practice – not only in the design solutions but also in terms of collaborative working between the different bodies engaged in water management. Instead, the industry has seemed to fragment, with par- ticular aspects unduly focussed on and purported to be the solu- tion to all the problems. The recent weather conditions have created a platform that provides the ideal opportunity for lobby- ists of specific elements of water management to get their mes- sage out. Whereas many of the arguments of course have foun- dation, there is still a big risk that overselling individual solu- tions as being the answer will be counterproductive. There is a"er all no 'one size fits all' solu- tion here. Over the past eight years there have been at least ten top level documents written and re- written by policy makers. The difference between Making Space for Water and the latest dra" of the Flood and Water Management Guidelines is marked and once again the goal posts have been moved. While it would seem that the very considerable level of work undertaken in recent years has improved under- standing and practice, the ques- tion is – has a strong enough thread been kept through the process, particularly with respect to an integrated approach? Integrated approach Back in 2008, Making Space for Water first championed an ambition that flood risks be managed more effectively by adopting a holistic, joined-up, and integrated approach. An area of particular concern was flooding in urban areas from surface water – due to inade- quacies in drainage systems - and the need for an integrated urban drainage management (IUDM) approach was identified. The government also recog- nised that the physical and institutional complexities of urban drainage systems make it difficult to plan and deliver sys- tems with reduced flood risk – particularly in England where complex institutional and fund- ing arrangements divide respon- sibilities between water compa- nies, the Environment Agency, planning departments in local government, housing develop- ers, householders and internal drainage boards. Six years on, we should not forget that the need to properly address these many challenges still remains for urban drainage, particularly with respect to run- off quantity and quality, land- scape aesthetics, ecology and amenity. As with all other aspects of water management further advances can be achieved by adopting an inte- grated approach. So let's not be drawn into narrow and independent focus on separate issues, rather let's seek collaboration; where plan- ners, designers, policy makers, budget holders, engineers and the general public input into an integrated approach, to ensure that we adopt best practice and spend effectively, within a timely framework of guidance and legislation. n Richard Hill is managing director of ACO Water Management. "...we should not forget the need to address these challenges remains" Richard Hill YOU SAY "Communities desperate for updated flood defences have had to wait longer for them to be built whilst funds are raised. The British water industry offers some innovative and imaginative technologies to provide sustainable and reliable solutions" Alex Stephenson, Hydro International NEED TO KNOW 1 More than 800,000 homes were protected by flood schemes during the severe weather experienced earlier this year and the end of 2013 2 Ten times the number of properties were flooded in 2007 than this time around 3 Policy makers have written and re-written at least ten top level documents News+ The reach of the flooding impact has been reduced in many cases

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