The 1953 floods 60 years on: Have we learned lesson?

Cambridge Network: Sixty years after the devastating floods of 1953, the UK remains under threat of rising waters in the face of climate change and increased rainfall. Continued investment in infrastructure must be matched with increasing the flood resilience of communities, say experts.

Flooding experts from the UK and abroad gathered to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the 1953 floods in a reception held by the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) this week.  His Royal Highness The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO provided the opening address. 

On 31st January and 1st February 1953, England, Scotland, the Netherlands and Belgium were devastated by some of the worst flooding in recent memory. The North Sea Flood of 1953 was one of the most devastating natural disasters ever recorded in the United Kingdom. Over 1,600 kilometers of coastline was damaged, and sea walls were breached, inundating 1,000 square kilometers.  Flooding forced 30,000 people to be evacuated from their homes, and 24,000 properties were seriously damaged.

Six decades on, rising waters remain one of the UK’s greatest challenges. Rising sea levels due to climate change and increasingly severe and frequent rainfall has increased the risk of flooding throughout the UK.   Just this week, nearly 50 flood warnings and 200 alerts have been in place across the country, with south-west England and Wales expected to be worst hit.

Professor David Balmforth, CIWEM Fellow, ICE vice president and chair of the Inter-Institutional Flooding Group, said coastal regions are now better protected by sea defences, reliable flood forecasting, and well-established emergency response measures, but raised concerns that progress on making communities more “flood resilient” was less advanced.

...Frank Heemskerk of Royal HaskoningDHV said that the Dutch have changed their approach in recent years, “We now focus on working with water and nature instead of against it.  This means creating opportunities by combining multiple functions when designing flood defences.”...

1953 flood level at the Harbour Inn, near Southwold, shot by Nigel Chadwick, Wikimedia Commons via Geograph UK, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license