Yet the situation is far from black and white there is considerable nuance. The Levels have not experienced such serious flooding since. Ultimately the Environment Agency dredged the rivers Parrett and Tone and the Somerset Rivers Authority undertakes frequent maintenance dredging to maintain larger channels. It took weeks, stretching into months for the water to drain away, leading to calls for far more extensive pumping and dredging to get rid of the water more quickly. Large areas of the Levels were inundated as river embankments overtopped. In the winter of 2013-14, and the preceding winter, the Somerset Levels experienced serious flooding as a result of successive winter storms bringing extreme levels of rainfall to the region time and again. As the volumes of water flowing in these channels are not particularly great, especially compared to the amount of water seen when we experience serious flooding, this approach is effective at keeping the land in a non-flooded state. These rivers and drainage channels are often slow flowing and dredging the channel to expand its capacity helps to convey the water away more quickly. Dredging can also be used to enable navigation. This helps the land stay dry and helps it avoid frequent flooding. Drainage channels, and rivers, allied to pumping, drain water from the land. Here’s a quick run through why it’s not the solution many want it to be, with reference to a report we published following the winter 2013/14 floods which impacted the Somerset Levels particularly badly, amongst other areas, and led to extensive calls for more dredging as a solution.ĭredging is most commonly used as a method to enable land drainage in low-lying landscapes which would otherwise be too wet to use for farming. When major floods occur, like this winter, there is a commonly heard call to “dredge the rivers!” as a solution. Is dredging an answer to the recent flooding? A reality check
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |