January 3, 2014

expert reaction to rainfall and flooding in the UK

The UK has seen continuing bad weather conditions over the turn of the new year, with many areas experiencing flooding.

Prof Andrew Watkinson, Professor of Environmental Sciences at the University of East Anglia, said:

“Our flood defences have recently been pushed to the limits by storms and they have largely prevented extensive flooding, especially on the coast.  Nevertheless significant numbers of houses have been flooded, transport has been disrupted and thousands of homes have been without electricity over the Christmas period.

“It is clear that we are struggling to cope with current extremes in the weather and there is a growing concern that our current flood defences and infrastructure would be vulnerable to a succession of storms.  Climate scientists have also for some time being predicting that extreme weather events are likely to become more common and the UK Government’s Climate Change Risk Assessment has indicated that storms and an increase in the risk of flooding pose the greatest climate threat to the United Kingdom.

“Given that we are not well adapted to current climate variability this is not the time to be cutting expenditure on flooding infrastructure, but rather to be investing to reduce the risks associated with flooding and improve the resilience of our transport and infrastructure to extreme events. The costs to the economy will otherwise be considerable.”