I wrote a letter to the EA in 2001 when I lived in Tewkesbury in short I expressed my opinion”why not take some arable land close to the rivers and build ox bow lakes, dig them hundreds of feet deep they will take relief from the rivers” it seem to me the solutions are staring them in the face yet they do nothing to help, they want the insurance underwriters to foot the bill then everyone in the country suffers.

IT will be a long list of small faults all coming together . Building on flood plains . The provision of minimal or cheapest drainage by independant developers and government projects . Extreme weather. Those old style cold winters slowed things up and in a big freeze the rivers had a chance to fine down . Underfunding of the EA is a gamble all polititions will try !! The Hoover dam in America was constructed after the crash and employed thousands of men and revived the country . Maybe resorvoirs dug in the worst affected areas and combining energy producing systems would be a solution . Also providing leisure amenities in tandem. There must be profit ? Because good or bad there are Hydro Electric schemes on the weirs on our rivers happening now .Pershore for example ??? 😮 😮 😮

This is true. Climate change is emerging as the latest threat to the world’s fast declining fish stocks, which could affect millions of people who depend on the oceans for food and income, says a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme.

The report, In Dead Water, says climate change may slow down the global flow of ocean currents, which flush and clean the continental shelves and are critical to maintaining water quality, nutrient cycling and the life-cycle patterns of fish and other marine life in more than 75 percent of the world’s fishing grounds.

Privatisation – the Death Knell for investment – too many get rich quick schemes and do any of the Watchdogs have teeth….no

Consider…
Water
Electricity
Railways
Telecoms – especially mobile operators
Financial Services – Bankers brought the country to its’ knees but still no significant prosecutions………blah blah blah

Don’t think you will get any joy from EA or similar bodies at all? They raped the banks of our local river for 15 miles stripped it bare in the name of flood prevention….not a thought for fish or wildlife

For Global Warming substitute “Costs for the Punters”

With reference to Anthony Waters idea of “oxbow lakes.”

Sorry mate this would not work. As the water table rises and the river rises the water level in the lakes rises too. There is no extra storage room. The lakes are always at the same level as the river regardless of whether normal or flood conditions.

Solutions need to be implemented well upstream in valleys of the smaller tributaries. Slowing the rate at which flood water reaches main river channels softens the curve on the hydrograph to produce less extreme but more prolonged flood events.
Unfortunately as Paul Newel comments, building on flood plains of the smaller streams creates rapid run off, especially with the new fashion of block paving and concreting every surface. Building on flood plains of major rivers is madness.
There are ways of combating the problem to an extent. Dredging main channels and building ever higher flood defences is not the solution. As quite rightly stated earlier, it just moves the problem downstream.