The severe flooding in Cumbria has led to high levels of press interest in what civil engineers have to say on the issue - on flood defence, on bridge safety and on issues surrounding critical infrastructure and the impact when that infrastructure is compromised.
The ICE has been working with national TV, radio and print media to provide expert spokespeople to provide insight into the issues facing the Cumbria region as a result of these dramatic flood events.
Institution of Civil Engineering flooding expert David Balmforth said: “The events of the last few days yet again illustrates that flooding remains a very real risk across the UK. Climate change means that is only going to get worse. We cannot hope to defend ourselves from flooding on this scale. Instead we need to make our communities much more resilient to flooding and this must be placed at the heart of the way we plan, design and build our towns and villages. This preventative approach, combined with continued investment, will help us to avoid the damage, loss of life and disruption to society that have been the all too familiar consequences of flooding in recent years.”
Director General of the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) Tom Foulkes said: “The events of the last few days have shown once again just how vulnerable our infrastructure is in the face of extreme conditions. We are often only hours away from social collapse if our critical infrastructure were to fail totally.
“We are highly reliant on inter-dependent infrastructure networks such as electrical power and transport to provide essential services, especially in emergency situations. The failure of a single piece of infrastructure, such as a bridge, not only causes difficulties in reaching basic commodities and services, but also leads to the failure of other connected infrastructure networks such as electricity, gas, telephone lines, waste and water supply.
“Because our key utility systems are already stretched to their maximum capacity there is very little spare to cope when disaster strikes. It is vital we invest in protecting and maintaining critical infrastructure to reduce the risk of system failure and ensure we are better protected against future crises.
“Failure to do this means we will be left as vulnerable to critical infrastructure failure as we are to natural disasters.”