Future Proofing The East Midlands
Now is the time to future proof the East Midlands for Climate Change
Experts gathered from across the region at Pride Park Stadium on Friday to discuss critical infrastructure and flooding issues in the East Midlands and how we can combat some of the likely impacts of climate change.
Speakers at the event included Professor Paul Jowitt current President of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Christine Durrant Assistant Director of Highways & Transport at Derby City Council and Innes Thomson, Area Flood Risk Manager at the Environment Agency.
The President says “The time is now for engineers, architects and planners to work together with end users and stakeholders to build sustainable and fulfilling environments”. The focus for the event was planning for climate change with two regional examples highlighting innovative, yet potentially controversial, solutions to flood risk management.
Christine spoke about the challenge ahead with water and flood risk management in Derby. She outlined the range of strategies that the Council, and its partners, are putting together to tackle these issues. Areas such as master planning for the Blue Corridor (a project promoted by the Environment Agency), Governance arrangements to enable the partners to respond to new roles and remits, and the need for skills and capacity building amongst engineers were covered.
Innes discussed the Isle of Axholme Flood Risk Management Strategy which is assessing the flood risk management needs of an artificially drained low lying area of land between the River Trent and Doncaster. Over 20,000 properties and 45,000ha of agricultural land is at risk of flooding as well as significant infrastructure. He posed the question to the experts “Do we continue to manage flood defences and drainage in the area as we have done over many decades or, in the face of climate change, can we develop a strategy to give future generations a long-term sustainable environment”.