Flood lessons in the UK already being forgotten

Edie.net: Like the gradually subsiding waters after a deluge, the lessons learned by those who fought the summer floods in 2007 are already seeping away. This was the concern raised by Defra's Colin Berghouse when he spoke at CIWEM's Extreme Flooding event this week.

Mr Berghouse spoke about the problem of embedding lessons into those organisations that need to learn them, lamenting the fact that it was all too common to see a flurry of action immediately following a flood but it would then drop off as the disaster became a more and more distant memory. "Once you've identified the lessons you have to go back and make sure you learn them," he said, flagging up several areas that time and time again cause authorities headaches, despite the fact the problems are well-known and well-documented.

Advance planning, the management of resources when floods do happen, public relations and leadership were often disasters themselves, he said. So if those responsible for predicting floods, minimising their impact and dealing with the aftermath are aware of these potential pitfalls, why do they keep stumbling into them? "One reason is the denial of failure, people have this fear of retribution," said Mr Berghouse before going on to outline a number of key causes for organisations getting things wrong….

Weir on River Great Ouse at Bedford and footbridge above it, with the river in flood. Shot by Simon Speed, Wikimedia Commons, under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2