Environment Agency warns of cost of floods

The devastating floods of summer 2007 cost the country £3.2 bn claims a report issued today by the Environment Agency. The report published some two months after the devastating Cumbria floods in November, illustrates the wide ranging and substantial costs of flooding.

Its release coincides with an excellent report that should be required reading. Retreating inland, creating habitable defence structures and building out into the sea are three options proposed to cope with the extremities of rising sea levels, in a futuristic project released today by the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) think tank Building Futures and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

The think-piece Facing up to Rising Sea Levels: Retreat, Defend, Attack? warns that the future of our coastal cities is in jeopardy due to rising sea levels, sinking landmasses and an increase in storm frequency. With over 12,000 km of coastline, radical thinking is urgently needed to protect the UK’s at-risk communities from extreme flooding. 

It challenges planners, the public, built environment professionals and the government to be radical and take extreme measures to tackle an extreme problem. Chair of the ICE steering group Ben Hamer said: “A proactive and united, almost war-like approach is needed if we are to win the battle against what is set to be our biggest challenge in the next century, the ‘water invasion’.

 “Some very difficult decisions need to be made in the near future, and to do this we need integrated thinking. The UK must urgently change the way it plans, builds and designs at-risk communities.

The blog endorses the view that: “This requires a strategic vision at local and national level, more co-ordination and improved communication between stakeholders, and some very creative thinking about how solutions can be developed to be financially sustainable.”