News & Events
News & Events
Ryedale District Council has agreed to spend �800,000 on two embankments to hold back water from Pickering beck.
Latest news from the Ryedale Flood Research Group
All of the project team members are delighted to hear this news. Sarah Whatmore commented that “This is fantastic news and a result of which the whole RFRG should be deservedly proud. A wonderful (and all too rare) example of an experimental research process actually producing something tangible in terms both of policy process and flood mitigation practice.”
Mike Potter of the Rydale Flood Research group announced the news by saying “It doesn’t yet protect the town, but it’s a major step in the right direction, so may be worth a small celebration.”
Follow on project
Project team members Catharina Landstrom and Geoff Whitman, working with Visiting Fellow, Kathryn Monk of the Environment Agency Wales, have submitted a proposal to the ESRC for funding for a follow on project. For further details, please see the Follow on project section of the website.
Life after the Ryedale Flood Research Group
During the summer of 2008, as the RFRG ended its 12 months of activity, thought turned to the legacy that we wanted to leave. We agreed to brief the Environment Agency of our findings in June of 2008 as well as to make our work public, through an exhibition mounted in October 2008.
The briefing to the Environment Agency was timely because Defra had issued a call for Demonstration Projects concerned with implementing and so demonstrating interventions in river catchments to reduce downstream flood risk. Forest Research agreed to lead the bid for the Demonstration Project, in outline form initially, and when it was short-listed by Defra in November 2008. In March 2009, the Demonstrating Project, Slowing the Flow in Pickering, was one of three projects to be chosen for funding and the project commenced in July 2009.
The Slowing the Flow project is formally testing and hoping to implement the bund solution identified by the RFRG. It is also extending the RFRG’s modelling work to look at additional catchment interventions, such as debris dams, that might also contribute to flood risk reduction in Pickering. It is worth emphasising the Slowing the Flow is not a research project but a demonstration project, concerned with implementing scientifically-informed flood reduction measures. In this case, it is informed by the way in which the RFRG was able to mobilise and to produce new forms of knowledge. Jeff Pacey, the Ouse Catchment Manager for the Environment Agency summarised the impact of the RFRG’s work:
“The RELU Project was very much a catalyst for our bid to Defra for the Pitt review Project “slowing the Flow”. The RFRG study provided background information, technical support and public support which helped progress the upstream storage element of the Slowing the Flow Project. The production of the model by the RFRG and the identification of the key bund locations from this initial large scale modelling provided significant cost savings to the Slowing the Flow project.
The work completed by the RFRG within Pickering once again highlighted Pickering’s flood risk and provided a large amount of background material that was used to inform the tender for the Defra demonstration project. This also provided key links with the communities and an opportunity for knowledge share across the projects.
The final point to make is that this work enabled us to improve our relationship with the community in Pickering and one that will hopefully lead to a successful outcome for all.”
Phil Rothwell of the EA, Tom Nisbet (Forestry Research) and Simon Marrington of the Slowing the Flow project board were interviewed on “You and Yours” on January 27th 2010. The interview takes place between 18:40 and 26 minutes into the broadcast. Click to listen here
Flooding in the news
Phil Rothwell, Head of Flood Risk Management Policy at the EA, was interviewed on the Today Programme, Radio 4, on 23rd November 2009. He cited the work at Pickering Beck as an example of new approaches to tackling flooding.
Have your say
Is the draft flood and water management bill going to address current and future flooding problems in the UK? Have your say here
The summer floods of 2007 caused huge financial, physical, financial and personal damage to many households and communities around the UK. Reviews of flooding, such as the ‘Foresight: Future Flooding Study2’ (2004), the UK government’s ‘Making space for water’ (2004) and Sir Michael Pitt’s Review (2007) have all highlighted critical gaps in the management of flood risk in this country. These include outmoded approaches and organisational structures, the unknown impacts of climate change and an increase in the risk of flooding to individuals, communities and society more widely. Critically, current flood legislation is considered too rigid to be able to adapt a broader range of approaches necessary to respond to our increased flood risks. The Draft flood and water management bill is designed to respond to these challenges through an engagement with concepts as ‘adaptation’ and ‘resilience’ and by recognising that a broader suite of measures is necessary to tackle flooding under conditions of uncertain environmental change. This includes potentially controversial measures such as allowing some places to flood. But will it work? As part of our wider RELU funded research project on Understanding Environmental Knowledge Controversies: The Case for Flood Risk Management we want to initiate a debate that asks the following question: Is the draft flood and water management bill going to address current and future flooding problems in the UK? We want to do this through an online debating forum called Debategraph in which all interested and concerned individuals can actively contribute their views and opinions. Our aim is to use this debate to inform flood risk policy as part of our project’s wider contribution to this crucial policy area. If you have views and opinions on this issue or are just interested in being part of such a debate then please go to Debategraph, and let us hear what you have to say.
About Debategraph and what we aim to achieve
Debategraph is a free online public resource that is dedicated to encouraging public debate on key contemporary political and social issues. Its focus is on creating visual debate maps that show how all elements of a debate are progressing and linked to each other. It is also interactive in that all participants in the debate can actively comment on and edit the debate as they see fit and this serves to actively update the debate as each contribution is made. This resource is owned by ‘Thoughtgraph Ltd.’ and they retain the right to remove any material from debates that is considered inappropriate or offensive. By using ‘Debategraph’ we are aiming to encourage a live and active debate on the Draft Flood and Water Bill as part of our wider project on flood risk. This is a critical contemporary issue in the UK that affects policy makers, organisations, academics, communities, households and individuals – in short society as a whole. Flooding in light of uncertain environmental change poses a significant risk to us all and we believe that such a key public issue requires public debate and so we encourage you to get involved and make your views and opinions heard.
Debategraph tutorial
- 1. Click on link to ‘Have your say here'(above)
- 2. You will need to register (click on the register tab at top of screen) and create a password before you can edit the debate
- 3. Once you have registered and the map is loaded go to ‘Edit’ in menu and select how you want to contribute to debate
- 4. There are some very useful and easy to use help sections in Debategraph
- . In ‘About’ section on Debategraph there is a very useful FAQ section which both explains what Debategraph is about and gives easy to follow advice about using Debategraph
- . Once in the map area there is also an inbuilt ‘Help’ section
End of project conference
The end of project conference will be held at St Anne’s College, Oxford on 10th and 11th December.
Latest news from Pickering
New measures to cut Pickering flood risk
During our work in Pickering, Defra issued its second call for demonstration projects concerned with the impacts of land management upon flood risk. Simultaneously, the Ryedale Flood Research Group had agreed that we should begin to discuss with the Environment Agency (Dales Area, North-East Region) how we might best get the RFRG’s work taken forward. These two opportunities came together in June 2008 and resulted in Pickering Beck being developed as a candidate for a Defra demonstration project in August 2008. The final bid was submitted to Defra in November 2008 and was awarded in April 2009. The Defra demonstration project will take forward the work of the RFRG in relation to bunds, testing the RFRG’s conclusions, and implementing them subject to practical issues being resolved. The demonstration project is also exploring other opportunities in Ryedale, making use of the models developed by the RFRG and also through the case-study work completed by academic members of the RFRG with local people in Uckfield, Sussex.
Sussex case study
Our next field work phase began in Uckfield, Sussex, in September 2008, and continued until May 2009.
Our second Advisory Panel Meeting was held in Arundel on 11th and 12th September 2008.
Ryedale Exhibition
The exhibition “Flooding – can local knowledge make a difference?” was held at Pickering Memorial Hall on 28th October 2008. Around 200 people attended the exhibition and were able to read about the group’s work, watch video clips, talk to group members and try their hand at modelling. For further details please see the Ryedale exhibition section of the website.
Here is a copy of the group’s report.