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16 posts found

The Flood Knowledge Gap Between Communities and Institutions

In 1724, a local historian described one Berkshire village as "a low and watery place" where "water is a dominant theme … with disastrous floods, both within and beyond living memory." More than two centuries later, that village still requires…
Posted on 11th May, 2026
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Living with Water: What the UK Can Learn from Venice’s Everyday Flooding

Flooding in the UK is still widely framed as an abnormal disruption — a storm, a breach, an exceptional failure. Media narratives emphasise “record-breaking” rainfall and “once in a generation” events. Yet official modelling tells a more structural story. The…
Posted on 23rd February, 2026
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How Increasing Rainfall Is Changing Flood Risk in the UK

Flooding across the UK is becoming more frequent, more widespread and easier to trigger. A growing body of scientific evidence shows that this is being driven not by radically different storms, but by increasing rainfall intensity and wetter autumn and…
Posted on 5th February, 2026
, in SuDS 
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Does Flood Risk Affect House Prices?

Flood risk has stopped being a background detail in the UK housing market. Buyers now ask whether a property sits in a flood risk area before they offer, lenders weigh flooding when they assess a mortgage, and sellers know that…
Posted on 16th January, 2026
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Guildford Flood Alleviation Scheme: flood risk, history and consultation

Guildford’s relationship with flooding is long-standing and well documented. The town sits at a natural constriction on the River Wey, where historic development, bridges and river training have progressively reduced the space available for flood flows. Significant flooding was recorded…
Posted on 14th January, 2026
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Construction Stage Flood Risk and the Lessons from Attleborough

Flood risk is most often scrutinised at the point a planning application is determined. Flood Risk Assessments are prepared, mitigation is proposed, and decisions are taken on the assumption that what has been assessed on paper is what will exist…
Posted on 13th January, 2026
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Resilience by Repetition: 25 Years on from the 2000 Severn Floods

When the River Severn burst its banks in the autumn of 2000, it wasn’t the first time Shrewsbury, Bewdley or Ironbridge had flooded — but it was the one that changed everything. Streets became rivers, businesses closed overnight, and entire…
Posted on 5th November, 2025
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York and the River Ouse Remember the Floods of 2000

In November 2000, the River Ouse rose higher than living memory. In a matter of hours, the postcard beauty of York’s riverside was replaced by a scene of eerie stillness: pub benches half-submerged, streetlamps reflected in brown floodwater, rescue boats…
Posted on 5th November, 2025
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Runways Underwater: The 2000 Crawley and Gatwick Floods

The final months of 2000 delivered what the Environment Agency later called “the wettest autumn in nearly 300 years”. Successive Atlantic depressions rolled in through October and November, dumping record-breaking rainfall across much of England and Wales. By early November,…
Posted on 4th November, 2025
, in SuDS 
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25 Years On: The Legacy of the Lewes Floods

This year marks 25 years since the historic Lewes floods. In the autumn of 2000, intense and prolonged rainfall overwhelmed the River Ouse, sending torrents of water through the heart of Lewes. Within hours, streets were submerged, homes and businesses…
Posted on 3rd November, 2025
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Planning is falling behind flood risk, says Aviva

Aviva’s Building future communities analysis presents a stark assessment of flood risk in England. By the middle of the century, millions more properties could be exposed to flooding, with risk increasingly driven by surface water flooding rather than rivers or…
Posted on 15th October, 2025
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Texas Flooding: UK Lessons in Planning and Climate Resilience

The floods have been described as among the worst natural disasters in Texas history by officials and multiple media outlets. As of 10 July, at least 120 people are confirmed dead and 173 remain missing, with Camp Mystic, an all-girls…
Posted on 10th July, 2025
, in FEMA 
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What the 2025–30 London Surface Water Strategy Means for Planning

As climate change accelerates and urban environments become denser, cities around the world face mounting challenges in managing water. Nowhere is this truer than in London, where the convergence of ageing infrastructure, rising population pressures, and increasingly erratic weather patterns…
Posted on 22nd May, 2025
, in SuDS 
, in TfL 
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Natural Flood Management: EA Research Deep Dive & Analysis

Natural flood management (NFM) does work, but the honest answer is more useful than a simple yes. The Environment Agency's latest evidence shows that measures which slow, store and filter water across a catchment can measurably lower flood peaks, especially…
Posted on 13th February, 2025
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The Pitt Review: impact, legacy and the gaps that remain

The Pitt Review was the independent inquiry, published in 2008, that reshaped how the United Kingdom manages flood risk. Commissioned by the government after the catastrophic summer floods of 2007, and led by Sir Michael Pitt, it made 92 recommendations…
Posted on 3rd January, 2025
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Boscastle 2004 Floods: Lessons for a Wetter Climate

On 16 August 2004, a torrent of water tore through the Cornish village of Boscastle. What began as a humid summer afternoon became one of the most dramatic and widely televised flood events in modern British history. Within hours, cars…
Posted on 16th August, 2024
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