Holding back the water

By Tony Andryszewski, Technical Manager, Environment Agency

Since February 2010 the Environment Agency has been pioneering new tests for flood protection products which could protect homes across England and Wales. Here Tony Andryszewski, Flood Manager at the Environment Agency, describes how this work is giving householders and organisations greater confidence in reducing their flood risk.

Heavy rain may be a fact of life for people living in the UK, but, for the one in six households in England and Wales at risk of flooding, intense or prolonged rainfall can spell disaster. Flooding causes thousands of pounds worth of damage in just a few hours, it destroys homes, causes heartbreak and puts companies out of business. Victims of flood often find themselves unable to return home for months whilst furniture, flooring, electrics and even walls are replaced – often at huge expense to either the homeowner or insurer.

The devastating floods of summer 2007 cost the UK economy £3.2 billion. A recent Environment Agency report found that the average cost per home flooded in 2007 was between £23,000 and £30,000, with a quarter of homeowners not fully covered by insurance.

The Environment Agency is working hard to protect more homes from flooding. The Agency has completed 225 new defences since the summer of 2007, increasing protection to over 198,000 properties. However, whilst we can all be better prepared and minimise the damage caused by flooding, we cannot prevent it. Some flooding is inevitable and climate change predictions show that weather conditions in the UK are likely to become more extreme, with more intense rainfall increasing likelihood of flooding.

Homeowners need to find out if they are at risk, and local authorities and community services, alongside the Environment Agency, have an important role to play in raising awareness of flooding.

The Environment Agency offers services to homeowners and businesses to help them to prepare for flooding. You can identify if you are at risk of flooding via free maps on our website (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood). Anyone living in a flood risk area is urged to sign up to our free flood warning service (Floodline Warnings Direct) by visiting our website (www.environment-agency.gov.uk/flood) or by calling Floodline on 0845 988 1188. This free service allows those at risk to receive flood warnings direct to their phone, mobile or email address. Live information is also available on our website including three day forecasts of flood risk, river levels and flood warnings.

However, simply finding out whether a property is at risk of flooding is only the first step. Further steps need to be taken to protect properties at risk of flooding. These preparations can make the difference between an easy clean-up and devastation.

Defending individual properties from flooding

Traditional flood defence schemes are not always affordable. Smaller scale, individual household flood prevention measures can be effective in making properties more flood resistant and resilient. There are many steps residents can take to protect their home and business from flooding. Some are simple and temporary while others involve permanent structural work.

Making a property resilient to floodwater will limit the distress and damage caused by flooding, which means less costly repairs and less time out of homes or businesses. Flood protection and resilience measures range from flood gates fitted to doors and windows through to using tiled floors in home renovations.

The experience of Appleby in Cumbria in November 2009 showed the effectiveness of flood protection products. Ahead of heavy rainfall and potential flooding, 46 homes and businesses in the town were fitted with flood barriers after receiving an Environment Agency flood warning. The products had been financed by Defra through a pilot grant scheme, at a cost of around £2,000 or £3,000 per property, and as water was cascading through the main street of the town, these 46 properties were protected from flooding.

Testing flood protection products

Keeping water out of a building during a flood requires a surprising level of engineering. Flood water can exert extreme pressures on a building, the likes of which can not be withstood by simply covering a door with wood or plastic. As a result, flood defence products used in the home need to be designed to prevent water from entering a building, whilst taking the pressures exerted by flood water without causing structural damage to a property.

In February 2010, the Environment Agency, in partnership with hydraulics experts at HR Wallingford, launched the UK’s largest flood product test centre in Oxfordshire. A cutting edge simulator is used to recreate the devastating effects of a flood using 196,000 gallons of water to test products designed to defend homes, businesses and people from flooding.

The test centre features a replica living room inside a massive tank of water, about half the size of a football pitch. During the simulation, the replica building is fitted with flood protection products, such as door and vent covers. The tank is then flooded with thousands of gallons of water to simulate a severe flood. If successful in holding back the flood waters, the products are awarded the BSI Kitemark, tested against a new industry standard, PAS 1188.

This new industry standard ensures rigorous and consistent testing, providing people at risk of flooding with confidence in flood protection products. Manufacturers benefit by being able to show that their flood product offers a high level of protection. This testing also provides local authorities, housing associations and developers with a clear route to properly tested products – including larger scale defences - which should encourage proactive installation in existing and new build developments.

It is hoped that this rigorous testing will encourage new product development, bringing further benefits to people at risk of flooding.

The National Flood Forum’s Blue Pages Guide provides an independent directory of flood protection products and services, including those with the BSI Kitemark. It can be found online at www.bluepages.org.uk.

Taking flood protection to communities

People at risk of flooding are already benefiting from this work. Last year, Defra’s property-level flood protection grant scheme helped some of those in high flood-risk areas by enabling them to purchase flood protection products for individual properties, such as those tested at HR Wallingford.

This year, the Environment Agency has made a further £2million available on behalf of government to deliver a programme of individual household flood protection measures. This scheme will increase protection to around 600 properties in over 30 communities.

Local Authorities can use the funding to survey properties to determine the most appropriate measures to protect each property. They will then use the remaining money to pay for measures to be installed at the properties.

The Environment Agency urges local authorities receiving this grant money to ensure that the products they purchase to protect people and property are tested and bear the BSI Kitemark wherever possible.

One community to benefit from such a scheme is Eamont Bridge in Cumbria. The village suffered from flooding twice in the last five years, the most recent being in November 2009 when a total of 45 properties were flooded – some to over a metre.

Last year, 37 properties in Eamont Bridge received flood resistance measures as part of a pilot scheme by the Environment Agency for the North West Regional Flood Defence Committee and funded by local levy money. Eight other properties were included in the Defra Property Protection Scheme run by Eden District Council.

100% of residents eligible for the scheme took up the offer of these improvements to their homes. To make the properties more resistant to flooding the Environment Agency fitted door guards, airbrick covers, non-return valves and pumps to properties. Where necessary the Environment Agency also carried out further works to re-point and/or render stonework.

This work is the result of extensive work with local residents. The village had to meet various criteria before it could take part in the scheme, including being in a flood warning area and having a flood action group. The Eamont Bridge Flood Action Group was established following flooding of the village in 2005 and will continue to be instrumental in protecting the village from flooding by working with the Environment Agency and local authorities.

Testing responses to flooding – Exercise Watermark

Preparing for flooding goes beyond defences. When flooding hits – as we saw in November 2010 in Cornwall and in Cumbria in November 2009 – an army of people spring into action.

In March 2011 these services were tested as part of the biggest emergency flooding exercise ever undertaken in the UK. Called Exercise Watermark, this four day exercise put the decision making, partnership working and communications ability of everyone involved in flood response under the spotlight.

Thousands of different organisations were involved – from parish councils, local government offices, police and fire and rescue services, to the Environment Agency, Defra and the Ministry of Defence right up to the highest level of decision making – Government’s COBR briefings, which were chaired, as in a real life situation, by a member of the cabinet. Over 335 businesses, communities and voluntary groups also signed up to take part, some of them deploying their own flood protection products.

This exercise helped everyone involved to think about how they would respond during a major flood, enabling them to react much more quickly in a real emergency. The Environment Agency is now reviewing the learnings from this exercise in order to further improve our response during a flood.

A holistic approach

Protecting people from flooding requires action on many fronts. From signing up to flood warnings, to engineering flood defences, to testing emergency responses. Empowering individuals with the means to protect their homes from flooding is one element of tackling this challenge. By driving standards and development of flood protection products, the Environment Agency’s work with HR Wallingford will give homeowners confidence to protect their own home. Local Authorities and service providers can support this effort by making information and products available to communities at risk of flooding.

For more information on how to prepare for flooding and to sign up to Flood Warnings visit www.environment–agency.gov.uk/flood or call the Environment Agency’s Floodline on 0845 988 1188.

For advice on setting up a community flood action group contact the National Flood Forum at www.floodforum.org.uk.