Sustainable Flood Resistance Approaches to Reduce Flood Risk in the UK

University of Birmingham 1087457 Fadil Karim
i
SUSTAINABLE FLOOD
RESISTANCE APPROACHES
TO REDUCE FLOOD RISK IN
UK
Department of Civil Engineering
1087457
University of Birmingham
Fidel Karim

University of Birmingham 1087457 Fidel Karim
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
In assembling the Sustainable Flood Resistance Approaches to Reduce Flood Risk in the
UK, I would like to thank the writer’s of the works which were used for the compilation
of this Executive Summary Report, without whom, it would not be possible to write.
I was incredibly impressed with the shear amount of information available at the
University of Birmingham Library and would like to thank the staff there for their
support.
I would also like to thank Dr. Tang, of the University of Birmingham, for making himself
available, should I have needed any support.
In addition,
Finally, I would like to thank Cube Designs, my father’s company, for the Flood Risk
Assessment, which was carried out by AAH Planning Consultants, for a property in
Wandsworth, London.
Fadil Karim
Birmingham, UK
January 2014

iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................................ ii
Introduction............................................................................................................................................................1
Aims and Objectives ...............................................................................................................................................2
Literature Research and Background .....................................................................................................................3
Raw Information.....................................................................................................................................................4
Rainwater Catchment.........................................................................................................................................4
Building Placement.............................................................................................................................................5
Flood Resiliance..................................................................................................................................................5
Flood Resistance.................................................................................................................................................5
Social Media........................................................................................................................................................5
Argument................................................................................................................................................................6
Discussion ...............................................................................................................................................................7
Analysis...................................................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion ..............................................................................................................................................................9
Recommendations................................................................................................................................................10
Appendices ...........................................................................................................................................................11
Appendix A........................................................................................................................................................11
Appendix B........................................................................................................................................................12
References............................................................................................................................................................13

iv

University of Birmingham 1087457 Fadil Karim
1
INTRODUCTION
Flooding in the UK is a major problem in certain parts. In the year 2012 alone, the UK’s
second wettest year on record, almost 8000 properties were floodedi. Flooding causes a
major hindrance on local businesses as it creates barriers for consumers.
Flooding occurs through a combination of eventsii:
 Heavy rain causing rivers and streams to overflow, creating floodwater
 Heavy rain can also cause run-off flows over land and down hills and slopes
 Coastal storms can cause the breaching of flood defences
 Ground absorbing rain causing ground water levels to rise and flood
These events cannot always be prevented. Any measures taken by designers can be
overwhelmed. In fact, nearly 2 million homes are at risk from flooding. For this reason
we must prepare to be as well protected as possible from any floods. There are a few
different methods by which we can prevent and/or reduce damage to structures and this
report will investigate the best ways to reduce the risk to the population, and to
decrease the time it takes for normal life to continue.
When flooding occurs, structures and housing need to be protected because having safe
and secure structures in a flooded area is crucial in order for the local population to have
a place to stay that is as safe as possible until they can be rescued and relocated to a safe
location. If flood resistant technology is incorporated into houses and apartments, this
will effectively buy more time for people who may be hiding in their houses. Houses can
be regarded as safe zones for longer periods. Furthermore, the repair costs to the houses
can be reduced.
Flooding also damages the local economy. This is because, the water causes massive
disruption and people cannot get around easily. Additionally, businesses will not be able
to function properly due to the massive decrease in demand, along with the inability to
provide for any potential demand. This problem is particularly a problem for shops as
many of their stock will be destroyed by the floodwater.
Lowering the flood risk will decrease the time spent clearing up the mess and rebuilding.
This means that the local economy can resume sooner, hence normal life can continue as
soon as possible.

2
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
It is well-known among the engineering community, that anything is possible. It is
completely possible to make an entirely flood-free environment. Huge coastal barriers
can be designed and implemented to prevent rivers from bursting their banks. However
this is not feasible as nobody wants to live in an environment which is surrounded by
huge walls which block the views. For this reason risk must be reduced for when the
current feasible flood defenses fail.
There are many approaches to reduce this risk and the aim is to find out the strengths
and weaknesses of the most sustainable approaches, and decide which is the most
effective. The best approach should cause the greatest drop in fatalities and significant
reductions in repair costs after floods.
This report will look at various methods of risk reduction such as building placement,
flood resilience, flood resistance and social media methods etc. We will provide research
which will consist of information on the sustainable technologies that may be
incorporated as well as data collected from areas where the flood resistant systems have
been implemented to provide a discussion which will argue the advantages and
disadvantages of each approach, in order to find out the most effective system.

3
LITERATURE RESEARCH AND BACKGROUND
Preparing for Floods, West Yorkshire
WS Atkins Consultants Ltd., Office of the Deputy Prime Minister
Interim guidance for improving the flood resistance of domestic and small business
properties
October 2003
Improving the flood performance of new buildings
Department for Communities and Local Government: London, Environment Angency
Authors: Pam Bowker BA (Hons), Manuela Escarameia MSc CEng MICE EurIng and
Andrew Tagg BSc MSc CEng MICE MCIWEM
Flood resilient construction
May 2007

4
RAW INFORMATION
As mentioned previously, there are many sustainable systems that can be implemented
to reduce the flood risk in a flood prone area. Many of these methods can be used in the
UK.
RAINWATER CATCHMENT
One such system that can be used is rainwater catchment. This is when rainwater is
collected from the roof and pavement, and stored in a tank. This tank can be stored
underground, or to save on costs, can be stored in the loft of a house. However a loft
installation would not be able to store as much water due to size and weight limitations.
This sort of system will reduce run-off rates of flow during heavy rain.iii Figure (1) shows a
diagram of an underground catchment tank connected to a house.
iv
Underground storage systems can cost around £1000-£3000v
Figure (1):
Rainwater
Catchment Tank

5
BUILDING PLACEMENT
The building placement approach is one where the structures are built specifically in
logical locations where they are placed, based on the structures flood-risk. For example,
a public service building such as a fire station or a police station will need to be placed in
a low flood risk area, where as a docking station can be placed in a high flood-risk area as
it must be placed by the water, and it is more acceptable to be flooded than the two
previous structures.
FLOOD RESILIANCE
This approach involves designing the structure in such a way that when the flood water
enters, minimal damage occurs, hence this reduces the cost of repairs and the disruption
to residents and the community while they wait for the restoration of their home. The
difference between flood resilient structures and conventional structures is the fact that
the designers must choose certain materials and components for various parts of the
house that are less prone to damage by floodwater. These material and components will
unsurprisingly be more expensive than the usual construction materials/components as
they have been engineered to be more durable. Building a house with this type of
approach will cost considerably more. In fact it will cost an average of £10,000 - £30,000.
FLOOD RESISTANCE
Flood resistance is the approach that prevents water from entering the structure. This
will be very useful for houses and apartments as it will buy the tenants more time to
move their more precious belongings to higher floors during a flood. This method is
usually used when building placement is not easily implemented. It is particularly useful
for shallow floods, and has the useful feature of buying time for the tenants during
higher floods.vi
SOCIAL MEDIA
The social media approach is the cheapest option. This strategy requires the local council
to create a social media page such as a Facebook or Twitter page that can post updates
and flood risk alerts the local community. Usually these alerts are broadcast on the BBC
local news channels on television, however, due to the rise of internet usage and the
decline of television viewing over the years in the UKvii, the internet can be utilized to
warn the community of predicted flood risks. This would allow the local population to
prepare for the disruption. This approach gives people the option of making plans to try
and reduce risk and disruption.

6
ARGUMENT
Rainwater Catchment systems can reduce run-off flow rates during heavy rain and are
economically useful for the owners; however they do little to reduce the height of water
during heavier floods. Although they do slightly reduce run-off rates, we need a very
large number of them in order to have any real effect on the height of the floods.
Building Placement, on the other hand, is more useful, as it uses intelligently placed
buildings. It is a very useful technique as higher ground is less prone to flooding. This
reduces the cost of repairs of the building that buildings that have been built higher up.
However with the growing populationviii, available land mass will decrease with the
increased demand in for housing increasing. What's more, this doesn’t solve the problem
of reducing flood risk for the greater population, as simply avoiding construction of
structures in flood prone areas will waste a lot of empty space.
Social Media can be utilized effectively, but cannot be considered as an independent
approach. Creating a social media page requires minimal effort and costs nothing. In fact,
due to its nature, it is already being used, as people who use these sites generally share
articles, information and photos of issues which concern them such as Flood risk. Forcing
local councils to create social media pages will take the social media risk reduction to the
next level, as the council can give the most up to date and trusted advice, along with
trusted links to interesting articles. Its only negative feature is the fact that elderly
people may not have access to a social media account to be able to access the
information.

7
DISCUSSION
Considering the information, Flood Resistance and Flood Resilience are the most
effective approaches. This is because they directly tackle floods and allow us to work
around them more easily. Houses should be built with a combination of these
technologies. These technologies cost a lot more than the others; however, although this
is the case, the overall cost of repairs, after just one flood will be much less.ix
As Water Catchment systems are only useful during heavy rain, due to their limited
storage capacity. Due to the price range of the average tank, the water catchment tank is
not a sustainable technology against flood resistance. It is however economical to the
owner as it will save on water bills in the long term, however this report is not
investigating economical benefits, unless they are directly related to flood risk reduction.
Due to the fact that the Building Placement approach requires designers to build certain
structures on higher ground, this limits the options available to the planners. This means
that, Building Placement is not sustainable due to the limited options when designing
schemes as there may not always be convenient higher, less flood prone, ground
available to build on. In fact, the UK government doesn’t allow housing structures to be
built in high flood risk areasx; however it may be necessary to build in these areas. Hence,
we cannot rely on building placement as a sustainable flood resistant approach.
Social Media is crucial in today’s everyday life. For this reason, it is a very sustainable
defence against flooding. What makes it so strong is the fact that it gives people the
choice to act in preparation, while also giving advice that is easily accessible at any time.
The only problem, as mentioned earlier, is the fact that the elderly may not have access.
However, the page can be promoted by posting flyers through letterboxes with
instructions on how to use certain social media sites. The cost of doing this is minimal.
Many people, not just the elderly, who still don’t want to use social media will still not
benefit, however, the graph in Appendix B shows the shear amount of people who do
use social media, and how fast it grew compared to other technological advances.
Having considered this, social media should be used as a sustainable approach to
flooding, but only when combined with the flood resistance and flood resilience
approaches.

8
ANALYSIS
The most sustainable approach is a combination of flood resilience and flood resistance.
With social media added to give the population more control.
While it may seem odd rather strange to have a combination of having one system that is
usually used in structures that allow water into the structure (flood resilience) and
another that actually prevents damage once water enters the structure (flood
resistance), having a combination of the two allows the two systems to work together.
For example, when dealing with low to medium flood heights, the flood resistance
system will be fully utilized. However, during medium to high flood heights, the flood
resilience system will be utilized due to the failure of the flood resistance system. Also, if
the resistance system fails, the tenant will have more time to move any valuable
possessions to higher floors.
Social Media is technically already being utilized by the population, as people share
photos and news articles with each other. Photos of floods are definitely shared
immediately among people affected. However a council-run social media page will help
to further aid people that are affected by the floods by giving them more of a choice for
preparation.

9
CONCLUSION
To conclude, the most sustainable flood resistant approach to reduce flood risk in the UK
is a combination of three systems. Two are completely design based (flood resistance
and flood resilience), and one is information based (social media). These approaches not
only buy the affected population some more time, but give them more of a chance and a
choice to plan ahead. They also positively affect the local economy recovery after
flooding disaster.
Many aspects, such as flood gates and the external wall repairs, of the design-based
technologies can be added to existing houses. Some, such as adding lime plaster inside
the walls, may be a bit more difficult to add to existing structures that don’t already have
it but the price paid to do this will be less than the price paid in the event of a flood.

10
RECOMMENDATIONS

11
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A

12
APPENDIX B
The Rapid Rise of Social Mediaxi

13
REFERENCES
i
Mark Kinver. (2013). Met Office: 2012 was UK's second wettest year on record. Available:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20898729. Last accessed 10th Oct 2013.
ii
WS Atkins Consultants Ltd. (2003) Preparing for Floods, West Yorkshire: Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.
iii
Robert Barker. (Unknown). Rainwater catchment. Available:
http://www.architecture.com/SustainabilityHub/Designstrategies/Water/1-3-1-2-Rainwatercatchment.aspx.
Last accessed 30th Oct 2013.
iv
Eco Rain Solutions, (2013), Rainwater Catchment Tank [ONLINE]. Available
at:http://ecorainsolutions.co.uk/Storage/htmluploads/f1b0vmzt.jpg [Accessed 30 October 13
v
Tanks Direct Limited trading (2013) Rainwater Harvesting Tank Below Ground Garden Kit, Available
at:http://www.tanksdirectuk.co.uk/rainwater_harvesting_kits/rainwater_harvesting_tank_below_ground_gar
den_kit(Accessed: 30th Oct 2013).
vi
Robert Barker. (2013). Flood resistance. Available:
http://www.architecture.com/SustainabilityHub/Designstrategies/Water/1-3-2-4-Floodresistance.aspx. Last
accessed 30th Oct 2013
vii
Tim Bradshaw (21st Jan 2010) Continued UK decline in TV ad revenues seen, Available
at: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ba84a726-05df-11df-8c97-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2op39VfEI (Accessed: 2nd
Nov 2013)
viii
Unknown. (2013). UK population: how will it change over the next few decades? Available:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/nov/06/uk-population-increase-births-migration. Last
accessed 3rd Nov 2013
ix
Robert Barker (2013) Flood resilience, Available
at:http://www.architecture.com/SustainabilityHub/Designstrategies/Water/1-3-2-3-
Floodresilience.aspx (Accessed: 7th Nov 2013)
x
Pam Bowker BA (Hons), Manuela Escarameia MSc CEng MICE EurIng and Andrew Tagg BSc MSc CEng MICE
MCIWEM, for the Environment Agency (2007) Improving the flood performance of new buildings, London: RIBA
Publishing.
xi
Mckinsey Global Institute, (2012), The Rapid Rise of Socail Media. Available at: http://www.ehulool.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/08/ChartOfTheDay_02082012_The_Rapid_Rise_of_Social_Media_n1.jpg [Accessed 20
Nov 2013

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