Groundwater Flooding map made available

This groundwater level information is particularly relevant for people living in areas prone to groundwater flooding. In the last month live groundwater level information for England has been made available via the following website:   http://www.gaugemap.co.uk/

International Levee Handbook Published

The International Levee Handbook (ILH) is a compendium of good practice, offering comprehensive guidance on the design, construction, maintenance and improvement of levees and describing the international state of the art on these matters. Also, it offers a decision support framework for competent engineers, rather than a prescriptive decision making code of practice, looking at specific challenges during the life cycle of levees. Members of the Levee Safety Coalition—ASDSO, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the US Society on Dams (USSD), the National Association of Flood and Stormwater Management Agencies, and Deep Foundations Institute—fully support and endorse the ILH. You can read more here or find more information on this project and purchase or download the handbook at ciria.org/ILH.

http://www.damsafety.org/news/?p=e7c72c98-d7e6-456a-86bb-5f339de32bac&utm_source=ILH+Webinar+Announcement+Chapter+2&utm_campaign=ILH+Webinar+Chapter+2&utm_medium=email

EFRA Committee report on Defra performance …. Including flooding – calls into question of where extra funding will come from

EFRA 10 February 2015 ‘The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee queries Government plans to attract £600 million from external funders to bolster flood defences. In its report on Defra Performance in 2013-14, the cross-party Committee cites low levels of private funding attracted to date as a cause for concern about ambitious future plans.

Chair’s comments

Committee Chair, Anne McIntosh MP commented: “The Government has committed £2.3 billion in capital funding for six years’ investment aimed at protecting 300,000 properties, but that plan relies on external contributions of £600 million.

We support the principle that the private sector should help to fund new flood defence schemes, but we have repeatedly expressed concern about the relatively small amounts of private sector funding secured to date under the Partnership Funding approach, with only £40 million of the £148 million secured up to 2014-15 coming from sources beyond local government.

It is unclear how the £600 million target can be met, and we want Defra to demonstrate how it intends to obtain that money and to explain the impact on its investment programme if the money does not come forward.”

The Committee also repeats its call on Government to move to a total expenditure classification for flood risk management and flags that revenue funding would benefit from a six-year funding commitment alongside capital. The Committee believes revenue and capital spending must be balanced to ensure both receive the same priority.” To read more go to:

http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/environment-food-and-rural-affairs-committee/news/report-defra-performance-in-01314/

Responding to flooding emergencies: Defra’s role in planning for and to help others design their own response

The lead government department plan is designed primarily for use by Defra staff involved in flood emergency planning. Also those who would be involved in the response to a flooding incident. But it will also help others involved in flood emergency planning and response arrangements to design their own internal processes to fit with those of Defra.

The lead department plan sets out Defra’s role:

• as lead government department (LGD) in central government planning for and responding to flooding emergencies; and
• in dealing with the consequences of flooding for other parts of its specific departmental responsibilities – for such matters as waste, water and food supply, impacts on farming and the environment

To read more go to:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/flooding-in-england-lead-government-department-plan

Flood Re – criticised by Committee on Climate Change

A £180m tax on home insurance to subsidise the premiums of flood-prone households is poor value for money and badly designed, according to the government’s official climate change advisers. The Flood Re scheme, designed by the government and Association of British Insurers, will cost three times more than the benefits it will bring, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) warned on Thursday. It also said the scheme does little to encourage homeowners in flood risk areas to protect their homes, therefore only postponing the problem of dealing with increasing flooding. This makes Flood Re needlessly expensive and renders the costs three time the economic benefits Professor Lord John Krebs, who leads the CCC’s work on adapting to global warming, wrote to Brendan McCafferty, the chief executive of Flood Re. He warned: “Flood Re is set to subsidise many hundreds of thousands of households more than the estimated number that might struggle to afford cover in the free market..”

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/05/flood-re-insurance-scheme-needlessly-expensive