Engineering Dynamism back into our Rivers

Overview

We are currently in a flood rich period in the UK and traditionally attention is focussed on direct protection to communities at risk. More recently it has been realised that opportunities to ameliorate flood impact also exist outside of at-risk towns and cities.

These forms of Natural Flood Management have received considerable attention of late and this talk will review the recent approaches to better managing our rivers and their floodplains to control flood peaks and importantly to restore the natural sediment balance in river systems that sees gravels stored in the catchments above flood risk areas rather than accumulating in urban flood relief schemes as it does at present.

We present data from several systems in the North of England where, through the reestablishment of natural river and floodplain processes, large volumes of sediment are now being locked up across floodplain areas reducing the flux of material heading downstream. We also discuss the added value that these types of schemes bring in terms of biodiversity gains and climate change mitigation through the rejuvenation of functional wetlands and consequent carbon capture.