Natural England - Natural solutions to flood management
Natural solutions to flood management
21 April 2009
Natural England welcomes publication of draft Floods and Water Bill
Conventional methods of managing floods and coastal erosion may no longer be adequate or sustainable in the face of climate change, said Natural England today (Tuesday 21 April) in response to the publication of the Government’s Draft Floods and Water Bill.
Helen Phillips, Chief Executive of Natural England, said: “This Bill must ensure that our natural environment plays a pivotal role in flood management. If we increase its capacity to retain more water it will play a greater role in reducing flooding and consequently our reliance on miles of costly concrete and earth embankments.
“The scope of flood management in the Bill needs to embrace natural solutions. Working with others we can start to make positive changes through measures such as restoring upland peatlands and river channels, increasing floodplain wetlands and allowing re-alignment of the coast. There is much to gain for people, countryside and wildlife if we get it right.”
Natural England welcomed recommendations made by the Pitt review, published last year, that the way rural land is managed can reduce rural and urban flooding at the local level and that the Environment Agency and Natural England should work together to deliver more schemes that work with natural processes. As a contribution to this, we are developing a delivery framework for integrating land management, wildlife habitats and flood management.
Natural England also supports the introduction of a water efficiency commitment for domestic use outlined within the Draft Bill. However, Natural England has raised its concerns that water efficiency should be a statutory target – not just a commitment – and all water users should be included, not just homeowners.
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Notes for editors:
For more information contact the Natural England press office 0845 603 9953, out of hours 07970 098005 or email: press.office@naturalengland.org.uk.
1. Natural England works for people, places and nature to conserve and enhance biodiversity, landscapes and wildlife in rural, urban, coastal and marine areas. We conserve and enhance the natural environment for its intrinsic value, the wellbeing and enjoyment of people, and the economic prosperity it brings.
2. Natural England’s responsibilities for the conservation, protection and enhancement of the natural environment mean that we have an intense and legitimate interest in the way that flood risk is managed.
3. Restoration of peat bogs: the uplands of the Pennines, such as those above Sheffield, are criss-crossed by over 30,000km of moor grips most of which were funded by Government grants in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Rainfall which used to be absorbed by peat bogs, rushes through these moorland drains into streams and lowland rivers, threatening the towns on their banks. The floods which occurred in Ripon in 2000 - and again in June 2007 - are a case in point. Restoration of these peat bogs will not only benefit precious wildlife habitat, but also reduce run-off.
Natural England with partners at the Peak District National Park and United Utilities have been working on a variety of initiatives across the North Pennines and the Bowland Fells to get this work moving. The other benefit of restoring these habitats is sheer quantities of carbon that they store: there is more carbon stored in the UK’s peat than in all the forests of Britain and France combined. All of the peatlands in England and Wales would absorb around 41,000 tonnes of carbon a year if in a pristine condition but could emit up to 381,000 tonnes of carbon a year if they are damaged by practices such as excessive burning, drainage and over-grazing. The restoration and enhancement of peatlands could save around 400,000 tonnes a year, which is equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions from 1.1 billion car miles or 84,000 family-sized cars.
4. Free-flowing rivers: removal of in-channel structures from rivers has multiple benefits. The River Wensum is a European Special Area of Conservation (SAC) in Norfolk, where the removal or lowering of three redundant mill weirs is seen as the most cost-effective solution to flooding problems in villages upstream of Norwich. This is also a key step in a river restoration plan for the River Wensum SAC, 67% of which is backed up from such structures. This is the first whole-river restoration strategy in England. It is led by Natural England, in partnership with the Environment Agency and the Norfolk Rivers IDB. It has synergies not only with the flood-management strategy, but also with the Fisheries Action Plan and the Wensum Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) project. (The River Wensum Restoration Strategy is published in April 2009 as a Natural England Research Report).