On June 25 the Pitt Review into the floods of 2007 was published. The Institution of Civil Engineers also published their supporting report 'Flooding – Engineering Resilience' on the same day.

This SPARC column aims to outline some recommendations from both reports, which impact Sheffield and South Yorkshire.

Pitt's opening comment is that "the floods of last year caused the country's largest peacetime emergency since World War 2". Interestingly this was not caused as a result of terrorism but by an act of nature… In Yorkshire and Humber alone the floods cost the region around £1,000m. So what can be done to limit damage and costs should we experience a similar disaster?

The reports recommend the following:-

lFunding needs to be long-term and secure. In the last decade the national flood defence budget has been cut and restored on three occasions. This yo-yo funding has undermined industry confidence, reduced skills investment and delayed the implementation of vital flood works.

The flood risk management programme seems to be limited by availability of funding rather than being driven by the potential for saving the further costs of flood damage. Earlier this year there was yet another significant cut in flood defence funding in Yorkshire and Humber. To make matters worse, local authority flooding budgets are not ring-fenced, allowing funds to be used to make up shortfalls in other areas.
lThe Environment Agency should take responsibility for the national overview of all flood risk, including surface water and groundwater flood risk, with immediate effect.

Developers' automatic right to connect new developments to public sewers could be removed by Government, so that they will have to consider the impact on sewerage and drainage networks and make greater use of sustainable drainage systems. In floodplains they will be required to make buildings flood resilient.

lTo deal with vulnerability, utility companies must make critical data available in case of emergency and take responsibility for ensuring continuity. They will be expected to build back spare capacity.

lThe role of local authorities should be enhanced so that they take on responsibility for leading the co-ordination of flood risk management in their areas. They should compile registers of all the flood risk management and drainage assets, including details of their condition and responsible owners, and should strictly implement PPS25, Development and Flooding – a critical task.

Do our local authorities have the resources required to meet these new demands? Pitt says that, for this to be meaningful in practice and to make a real difference to the quality of decision making, "local government and society must begin to value more highly the importance of technical and engineering skills".

There is a need to educate the public at large as to what civil engineers do. To recruit young people to meet this demand, both they and their teachers need understand that civil engineers influence a major part of our way and standard of living, protecting lives as much as the medical profession.


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