Managing Flooding in Warwickshire

Transcription

1 Managing Flooding in Warwickshire By Andrew Savage, MICE C.Eng. - County Highways Contract & Policy Manager - Managing Flooding - Content of Presentation Background - Flood Events over the Past 100 Years in Warwickshire any trends! Managing Strategic & Local Flood Actions A Multi Agency Approach Before, During and After Floods Improvements in IT systems help management of Flood Events Impact of the Flood & Water Bill for Local Authorities Climate Change - It seems we re in for the long haul!

2 History of Flooding in Warwickshire Wettest on record for Central England 293mm May-July Jan. 1 st 1901 May 23 rd 1932 (1953 East Coast Storm Surge 300 drowned) April 10 th 1998 Easter (1 drowned)- Properties flooded? June Cubbington, L/Spa- 42 properties- Surface Water Flooding July 21st mm rain - some 2000 properties 80% flooding from water courses 2008 Summer Fenny Compton Surface Water Flooding 2008 Dec.13 th Delamere Road Bedworth - 40 properties Why is responding to flooding difficult and variable? Scale of Flooding 3 hours to 5 day! Critical Infrastructure, Care homes, schools Police and Fire & Rescue Highway Bridge Development Groups Highways Agency 200 Parish District County Councils Private Land Owners. Ditches New Staff in all outlined groups Paper or no records hotspots? Events ever Years Limited Funding Env. Agency S.T.Water B.Waterways Lack of centralized information Press & Public Expectations can be like a machine gun

3 The July 2007 Storms Cover Warwickshire! (4-5 times average rainfall- Similar in many other parts of UK) - Key Facts About 2007 Floods A Wake Up Call! 120mm rain in 5 hours 60 Roads Closed Countywide 20 Damaged Bridges Over 4000 telephone calls to County Highways over a month Some 2000 properties flooded Home, businesses, care homes, and a school Flooding scattered across 75 Communities with 5 to over 100 properties with internal flooding. 5 Market Towns suffered significant flooding Shipston (69), Wellesbourne(70) Henley(50), Alcester(150), Bidford(95) Areas of Leamington(6) and Warwick (10) very close to significant flooding. (10) = no. of properties flooded)

4 Shipston on Stour 69 Homes and businesses flooded Henley 2007 some 50 properties flooded

5 July 2007 Flooding - Warwick Literally The Water Front Warwick New flats now difficult to insure! 2007 Wellesbourne Some 70 properties flooded by River Dene

6 July 2007 Flooding -Stratford Waterside Street aptly named in Stratford. Plaque show 100 year range of Floods in 1901, 1932 and 1998, Less severe in 2007!! Economic Impact of 2007 Flooding Circa 1800 homes flooded Some 200 businesses flooded Total Insurance Bill 90M Some 400K immediate highway and bridge repair costs Road condition showing signs of deterioration after two wet summers potentially 3-6M to address deterioration.

7 Improvements in the Management of Flooding Events since 2007 Pitt Report National Review Various Internal Reports County and District Setting Up a Warwickshire Strategic Flood Forum Oct 2007 Draft Water and Flood Management Bill Strengthening the Role of Communities and Individuals Post Recovery Actions Setting up a Strategic Flood Forum Planning processes Flood Risk Management Forum Local Resilience Forum (LRF) Scrutiny Local Strategic Partnership Investment processes for each authority/agency Regional Flood Defence Committee Political involvement 5 District Surface Water Management / Drainage Group Membership of Surface Water Management/Drainage Group: Highways, water companies, EA, IDBs, district councils (SUDS issues) LRF Flood Working Group

8 Post Recovery Actions Setting up a Warwickshire Strategic Flood Forum The Terms of Reference of the WSFF Group are:- Ensure effective collaboration between Agencies & Departments. (include fire and rescue) Reviews progress of Agencies & Departments in respect to the 15 Urgent Recommendations of the Pitt Report. Eg Looking at Network Vulnerability. Looking medium - long term at the maintenance & improvement of the drainage infrastructure Ensure local drainage forum's meet regularly with appropriate representation and progress key projects, and support to resolve any difficulties. Prepare & update list of key contact details between Agencies Reviews & proposes improvements to communication systems during and after emergencies. Help review and influence organisational policies to ensure consistency. Help explore appropriate funding sources Managing potential risk of Flooding Closer tracking of Weather conditions and water levels by all key agencies. More focused organisational alertness - Green, Amber and Red or Bronze, Silver and Gold Status.

9 Managing Flood Events as conditions worsen! Fosse Way proactive surveying during floods identifies major risks to driver with water 5ft. deep Managing Flood Events being prepared for many road closures. July 2007 Flooding -60 Roads Closed You can t stop every one putting themselves at risk! Even 4X4 can t always cross fast flowing flood waters. New maps capture high risk sites

10 Managing Floods Recovery Stage July 2007 Flooding Recovery Actions by EA Know key people to contact and hotspots Clearing up operations dovetailed with Environment Agency. Managing Flood Events PR Matters Initial Shock of Flooding to residents the experience is terrifying Need someone on site in flood events within an hour (when more than 5 homes involved) Managing Distressed People Mobile Advice Centre (lacking in 2007) Vulnerable People & Pets! Managing Press Co-ordinate Recovery Activities of Organisations

11 Managing Flood Events Recovery Actions July 2007 Floods Over 60 roads closed during flooding. Repairs blitzed and all roads open to traffic within 48 hrs after flood water subside. EA busy clearing debris from key bridges Developing IT systems to help manage flooding! The scope of IT is to help join up organisations and fill information gaps Scale of Flooding 2 hours to 5 day! Critical Infrastructure, Care homes, schools Police and Fire & Rescue Highway & Bridge repairs Highways Agency 200 Parish District County Councils Private Land Owners. Ditches New Staff in all outlined groups Paper or no records hotspots? Events ever Year Limited Funding Env. Agency S.T.Water B.Waterways Lack of centralized information Press & Public Expectations can be like a machine gun

12 Managing Flooding Developing IT systems Management Gullies on a 3820km road network and associated pipe and ditch systems Managing Hotspots and Road Closures to keep Essential Services Going Minimising impact of future Managing and improving future local resilience Sharing Information! Creating More Integrated Information Systems in Highways Organisations up to 6000 calls/year on drainage issues I N T E G R A T E D M O B I L E S O L U T I O N P H O N E C A L L C E N T R E A R E A S U R V E Y O R S A F E T Y I N S P E C T I O N T E A M S T R E E T W O R K S D E F E C T P O O L P. E. M. W C C / C A R I L L I O N D E F E C T P L A N N I N G P R O C E S S

13 Developing Drainage Management Tools -Using In-Touch to target blocked Gullies 30 Blocked gullies to be cleared October 2006 Kenilworth, Cluster Maintenance of 30 Gullies to be cleaned out shortly Managing Flooding Developing Drainage IT Systems 30 Blocked gullies to be cleared October 2006

14 Stage 2 Improvements Asset Management of Gullies New Systems to be developed to collect fixed asset data Improving customer service smarter details in call centre to take query details and Accurate future feedback location details save wasted time by repair gangs going to wrong site Intelligent variable frequency cleaning can save circa per annum Developing Flood Management Plans Using GIS Tools from October 2009 First opportunity to have Countywide picture of key information at the press of a button. Rapid drill down to local details

15 Corporate GI Vision Three distinct areas of work: GI Strategy/ Services GI Data GI Applications Secure access to Partners e.g. VPN or password protected web pages Spatial Data Store Desktop GIS users Highways, Development Group, Emergency Planners, EA, Parishes, other Corporate GIS Team administers all aspects of the SDS including updates from users and external suppliers. OS Updates Data from external suppliers Public Public Internet Internet Firewall Spatial Data Store (Cluster) GI in applications e.g. HMIS, Exegesis, ParkMap

16 Use of GIS- Creating Flood Management Plans for Alcester Plot of the extent of Flooding Use of GIS- Creating Flood Management Plans for Alcester Plot of Properties at Risk helps focus local resilience

17 Use of GIS- Creating Flood Management Plans for Alcester Plotting of Development Applications and Flooded Properties Use of GIS- Creating Flood Management Plans for Alcester Plotting of Bridges, Schools, Sewers, etc,etc possible

18 Future Layers of GIS Flood Management related data All Critical Infrastructure Ditches Maintenance Inspections Road Closures Utility details Survey Details Land Ownership, Management of Flooding Funding Issues 2007 was a wake up call! No additional Funding for 12 months after July 2007! Levy Funding 3M out of 15M requests to Local Levy Board Medium Term Funding does not meet local aspirations 2008 Domestic Grants - 3m awarded from 25M requests nationally. 0.5M allocated by WCC Members for 2 years Projects of the order of 10-30M required over next 10 years.

19 Some Strategic Actions Progressing Larger Schemes Drainage Forum Meetings monitors progress of on going and proposed new schemes. Eg Kenilworth Flood Alleviation 14M by STW Leamington Flood Relief project modelling exercises ongoing. Possible 20M project by STW 3 Schemes by EA planned for K Alcester Pumping Stations 350K Wellesbourne Raising existing bund and new retaining wall. 510K Broom Earth bund and STW works 0.5M of Area Committee Projects Flood Defence Works in Long Itchington Water Course Works started in September 2009

20 Innovative Solutions- not just pipes, pumping stations and bunds Wooton Wawen 20 homes flooded in 2007 Ground levels reduced to channel flood water to field past houses and community hall. Seems to work during 2008 heavy storms Recent Isolated Flood Events Bedworth December Homes flooded in Bedworth in 3 Hour flood event -13 th December 2008 Flood Investigated days after event and Modelled in weeks

21 Recent Isolated Flood Events Bedworth December Homes flooded in Bedworth in 2 Hour flood event -13 th December 2008 Ditch Piped and retaining wall raised May 2009 New Trash Screen and monitoring gauges July K April 2010 additional retaining walls costing 150K Draft Floods and Water Bill 2009 Surface water management is an idea whose time has come. For years people struggled to do the right thing despite the system. Now the draft Flood and Water Management Bill clearly sets out who should lead and that partnership working is expected, for example: S132 The Government also believes local flood risk management will be best if based on new partnership arrangements S135 The draft Bill places the leadership role in these partnerships on county and unitary local authorities. S 136 County and unitary authorities will. Produce flood risk assessments and flood risk action plans e.g. surface water management plans for their areas...but where s the funding!!!!

22 Conclusion Slide 1 of 3 Key elements for successful management of flooding Working in partnerships is essential before, during and after flood events. Strategic approach needed to influence policy both development and funding! Sharing of data and information to improve everyone s understanding of risk Build resilience Conclusions on Flooding- Slide 2 of 3 Historically, major flooding has happened in Warwickshire every years but now every 10 years???!! Don t develop in the wrong spot! Local resilience important A Strategic Flood Forum is key to maintaining progress before, during and after the next flood event.

23 Conclusion on Flooding Slide 3 of 3 You can t sit on the fence or behind it. You have to manage before - during and after floods on a continuous basis. Climate Change and the Draft Floods and Water Bill are here! Developing IT Systems key is to managing complex and varied stages of flooding. Any Questions?