This winter’s floods show us that we need a step change in the way we manage flooding and its consequences. Widespread dredging would not prevent floods during such overwhelming rainfall. Instead, we need to invest in natural ecosystems to complement engineered defences and smooth out the increasingly rapid cycle of drought and flood.
In short, we need a national plan for flood resilience.
Britain has enormous technical expertise and insight into the risk we face. The RSPB has been closely involved in flood management for decades. Many of our reserves are functioning flood defences – protecting hundreds of homes this winter – and we are a partner in large civil engineering schemes.
The real challenge is making the change required, which will involve tough choices for people and government. We believe that change should be underpinned by three principles:
Protect lives, homes and vital infrastructure
We must simplify and integrate responsibilities so that flood planning decisions are shared between five levels of government.
Then long-term plans must be followed. The places hit by floods are known to be vulnerable, in many cases good plans have simply not been implemented.
It is vital that we strengthen the Environment Agency so that it is more than an emergency response body.
We need to stop building on floodplains and make sure other land uses are resilient.
Restore our damaged countryside
In order to restore our damaged countryside we need to get more for direct payments to land managers. We spend over twice as much on direct support to farmers as we do on flood defence. Government should tighten rules about soil condition and habitat protection so that our countryside can cope with more water.
Investing in natural coastal defences is essential. Managed realignment sites such as Medmerry and Steart have been spectacularly successful this winter.
Restoring rivers and floodplains to store water upstream of towns and cities is hugely important to deal with extreme weather patterns in the future.
Manage change for a positive future
In the future the Government must remove ambiguity over which bodies should be promoting resilience and adaptation and provide funding for delivery.
It is vital that we plan where water goes and control which areas receive and store floodwater.
Finally, and most importantly, support is vital for those facing change. We have a lot of work to do to ensure the UK is resilient to flooding and it won't happen overnight. No one should feel abandoned or helpless when faced by inevitable increases in flood risk or coastal erosion.