River Turn: Flood Warning case Study
Your Task
The Environment Agency has policies that relate to flood defence and flood warning. You can find these in full on the web site: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/. You will find summaries of these elsewhere with this brief.
The River Turn does not exist. It does, however represent many typical aspects of flood management in the UK.
At present, there is no comprehensive flood warning system for the river, some monitoring systems are established and you will find the details of these in this brief.
Your task is to examine the river system through the documentation made available through this case study. You should decide what parts of the river are most likely to be prone to flooding due to various causes. You should develop a monitoring and warning system covering the whole catchment. Life is relatively easier for you than any known reality: there are only four towns of consequence on this river, and few villages that you need to worry about.
The sheet Planning for Floods gives you an overview of the most obvious approach to flood warning.
You will need to decide where you need monitoring equipment installed. Detection and Monitoring Equipment details what is available to you, and the costs of both installation and maintenance.
You have a limited budget to spend in total. You have a capital budget (for use to purchase and install monitoring, warning and other equipment) and a revenue budget (annual budget for use to keep everything working properly and communicating with people).
You may consider it necessary to do some public education work. There is no budget for this, but if you make an effective case, money may be available. Remember that floods are (thankfully) relatively rare events, that people move from place to place all the time (there are always new residents moving in), and that public awareness declines over time about any issue. Unnecessary repetition of false warnings and information about flood problems diminishes its value to the recipient. The most valuable information is simple, timely and actionable.
Your task (working in your groups) is in two parts:
¨ To specify as economic a flood warning system as possible consistent with public safety needs. On the way to doing this, you should ask yourselves many questions, such as “What if we have heavy persistent rainfall on Padmoor?”
¨ To ensure that the population affected is as fully aware as possible about what action the issue of a flood warning should lead to.
You should produce:
¨ A report detailing the monitoring and warning system, which should include indication of the way that the system should work when activated, and what actions you propose to take to communicate with residents if warnings are necessary. It should include details of any public awareness or education programme that you think necessary. This report must be concise and it must be easy to find your way around it. It should have a one-page executive summary.
Contents of this Brief
Planning for Floods: a short outline of the process applied to flood planning.
The Environment Agency’s Flood Defence Role: an edited summary of the Agency’s role.
How and when the Environment Agency issues Flood Warnings: public information.
Geography and Demographics: The River Turn: a description of the whole river and the important locations upon it, with maps.
Detection and Monitoring Equipment: a run-down of possible equipment and associated unit costs (both capital and revenue).
Warning Methods and Costs: some illustrative costs involved with a variety of communication methods.