[SystemSafety] Floods and Electrics

Mon Jan 4 22:12:56 CET 2016

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On 2016-01-04 18:36 , Matthew Squair wrote:
> Along similar lines in Australia (land of flooding rains) we've found that by replanting trees
> in a belt along the river course we can reduce the rate that water spills into the rivers and
> therefore the flood peak that's experienced, it spreads the pulse out in effect. Reduces
> erosion as well.

Such measures are well-known in the UK and promoted not only by experts but by major journalists
who write about the issues.

The idea is simple. You retard the runoff from the watershed. It follows that you get less in the
river all at one time, so the river doesn't rise as high.

The UK will conclude that building physical flood defences downstream cannot work, because the
requirement is too high. It is easy to conclude, as well, that clearing channels (dredging
waterways) cannot work effectively, indeed the UK Environment Agency itself knows that (simple math).

It's not clear what will happen. I lived for almost two decades in an area of the world prone to
Richter 8 earthquakes, full of buildings of the sort which collapse and burn in those
circumstances, and command enormous prices because 40-120 years = "never".

My guess is that collective memory (insurance, house prices and so on) runs on a cycle of about
five years. So places like Hebden Bridge are going to have to adapt or face a derelict High
Street. And places on a longer cycle such as York and Leeds are going to engage in a time-honored
recovery/complaint cycle and may or may not implement enhanced local defence.

PBL

Prof. Peter Bernard Ladkin, Faculty of Technology, University of Bielefeld, 33594 Bielefeld, Germany
Je suis Charlie
Tel+msg +49 (0)521 880 7319  www.rvs.uni-bielefeld.de