Natural Flood Management: results from the Pickering Beck and more...

Working with natural processes to reduce flooding (also known as Natural Flood Management or NFM) is receiving a great deal of media and professional attention particularly since the floods in late 2015. The WTT sees this as a very healthy development: working with natural processes rather than dredging and canalising rivers is good for our rivers and wildlife as well as for people and property.

The evidence for the effectiveness of NFM is gradually building and the recent report produced by the Forestry Commission on the impacts of the use of flood storage and ​‘leaky dams’ on slowing the flow on the Pickering Beck is a welcome addition. 

The Environment Agency in England has a programme of research and dissemination that aims to ​‘allow flood and coastal erosion risk management to be carried out sustainably, improving the environment for people and wildlife’.
Click here for more details.

Alastair Driver of the Environment Agency recently visited Stroud where the local council have carried out a natural flood mnagement project. He says ​‘the project is very low cost, the work achieved in a short space of time is remarkable and the results so far are striking’ . Click here for a copy of his notes on the visit. 

In Scotland SEPA have produced a very useful handbook which is a practical guide to the delivery of natural flood management.