Castle Debates: Flooding

Published on by

Castle Debates: Flooding

The purpose of the debate is to provide objective and factual clarification of selected current environmental issues . To this end, a panel of three experts addresses the applicable science, law and policy. Each speaker has 15 minutes to present and then the floor is open for a question-and-answer session from which a summary of the Debate is produced. Chaired by Pamela Castle OBE, they are heldapproximately on a monthly basis fromOctober 2013to June 2014 atvarious locations across Londonin association withSykes Environmental and sponsored by Legal Sector Alliance and the ENDS Report.

Climate change predictions indicate that rising sea levels and more frequent and severe rainstorms will increase the risk of flooding on a global scale. Management of land and river systems by building and maintaining flood and coastal defences is deemed essential but in the UK other preventative measures relating to inland flooding are subject to debate: dredging and pumping give benefit to a few but increase the speed of run off and risk of flooding to those downstream; counter proposals include making the uplands more water absorbent by, for example, reforestation, restoration of bogs, and more ponds, sluices and water storage projects. Inevitably, funding will be a major problem.

Information

Taxonomy