Farming Future Floodplains

Globally, flooding is the most economically significant natural hazard, associated with an estimated USD 700 billion of damages between 1984 and 2005. Although the largest share of economic flooding costs is borne by urban communities, agriculture typically occupies more than half of the land surface in most countries and is likely to play an increasing role in both flood mitigation and adaptation. Policies that combine flood risk management with other objectives such as food production, rural livelihoods and the protection of natural resources and nature conservation are likely to offer the best long-term solutions.

Matt Jones from Staffordshire Wildlife Trust will focus on Farming Floodplains for the Future, a partnership project hosted by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust and funded by Defra, which is intended to inform future policy direction. The project has completed works on eight sites, demonstrating opportunities ranging from the reconnection of floodplains and diversion of watercourses to the alteration of existing ponds and construction of debris dams and other water control structures. The key to success appeared to be the cumulative slowing and storing of water in the headwaters and tributaries, as new attenuation opportunities are limited in downstream functional floodplains.

The second presentation by Cranfield University will review the application of the source pathway receptor framework to understand the role of agricultural land in flood risk management. It considers how mitigation, such as conservation tillage or retention ponds, can help reduce the probability of flood generation from farm land, and it shows how adaptation can help reduce the impact of flooding by enhancing flood warning systems and switching to flood-tolerant agricultural land uses.

For those interested in finding out more, the presentations will be made at Water & Environment 2010: CIWEM's Annual Conference on 28th and 29th April at the Olympia Conference Centre, London.