The Traditional Fisherman's Forum

Nine tenths of England's floodplains not fit for purpose, a study finds. Intensive farming cited as the main reason for destroying natural barriers to deluge and making low lying areas more vulnerable to floods: https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tudy-finds

Still not a reason to build houses on them mind.

You don't even need to be on the plain itself. Someone I used to know back in 2007, when the last great flood hit the Don Valley, was offered the chance to go home early from work (the torrential rains started about midday) as he lived in one of the affected areas. He refused on the grounds that he was half way up a very steep hill from the Don and therefore not at risk. When he did return home he found that a combination of blocked street drains (which was what actually caused a lot of the damage then rather than river overflow) and topographical quirks had led to a large stream going straight through his back door and flooding the entire downstairs to a depth of several feet. We had a whipround for him as his insurance company claimed it was the council's fault and he should sue them.

Thankfully, however, Sheffield Council has now abandoned some of its more bizarre schemes for creating flood storage areas in the upper Don and its tributaries (Loxley and Rivelin) such as large earthwork barrier dams with sluices at pinch points, opting instead for mostly clearing out silt from the mill dams that have been there since the early 19C and their 'goits' (entrance and exit channels from and to the river). It should improve the fishing as well.

This is old news. Most rivers' whole catchment areas are not fit for purpose. The problem starts in the hills where most of the rain falls. Lack of trees etc.etc.etc just means that the water runs off far too quickly into valleys and flood plains, and poor flood plains just exacerbate the flooding at bottle necks along the rivers' courses. It's a general problem of poor land management!

I think it's new news that agriculture is largely at fault. Up to now, as the report makes clear, the blame has been put on housing/industrial development.

Agriculture was blamed at least two years ago and has been discussed elsewhere on the forum. And I well remember reading articles on this subject on the BBC news website. One of the major problems is the modern trend for farmers to grow corn, because there furrows travel down hill and not across. Other poor practices are many, from lack of hedgerows and woodland on slopes, and the bare hill policy adapted by National Parks ; where once grew great forests grew before the industrial revolution, are now bare hills which have been deliberately kept that way, apparently for aesthetics. Ironically, after every wet winter farmers are urged to clear their ditches, a practice which just allows water to flow off hills more quickly! However, since this issue has been studied for some time now, there have been established some excellent practices by many hill farmers in the North, notably Northumdria, where there are schemes to slow down water and keep most of it in the hills for longer. They have planted more trees and half dammed small streams with dead logs, all designed to reduce flooding in the valleys.

It won't be long before we've got plenty of beavers on our Dorset rivers and their dams will slow down the river. They're in Devon and I'm sure will appear in neighbouring counties before too long...