River Eden burst its banks in Appleby due to Storm Desmond. Source |
On Tuesday 8th December, on the Today Programme on Radio 4, George Monbiot - an environmentalist - and Meurig Raymond - the President of the National Farmers Union - engaged in a debate over the impacts and possible causes of Storm Desmond flooding in the North of England. I thought this debate very fitting to my blog, it distinctly fits in well with my previous blogpost on Storm Abigail. With extreme weather events set to increase with climate change, it is vital that we look at ways to mitigate flooding effectively, particularly with the devastating impacts flooding has on urban areas. You can get the podcast of this debate here, at 2:48:00 into the episode.
George Monbiot is an accomplished writer, known for his environmental and political activism, and weekly column in The Guardian. In this debate, he first began by outlining the issue with current flood mitigation strategies: instead of preventing the flood from happening, we wait and act after it has hit. We should, he argued, use soft engineering approaches as a flood prevention strategy, such as reforesting bare hills and rewilding river systems. This is for a number of reasons - by reforesting hills, the percolation rate into the soil will increase and therefore water is released more slowly. Additionally, by rewilding rivers and allowing them to meander, to form islands and banks of gravel and shingle, the river system will become more dynamic, and the flow of water will be held back.
The processes of channelisation and river dredging were described by Monbiot as turning rivers into ‘straight drains’, whereby water bypasses farmland, but subsequently then rushes into the nearest settlement. Furthermore, bare hilltops produced from pastoral grazing has meant that too much water cascades down hillslopes that rivers are unable to contain; either water is allowed to spread over agricultural land, or it is sped past farmland through dredging and channel clearing, whereupon it comes down to the nearest ‘urban pinchpoint’ - such as a bridge. The resulting impact is the flooding of homes and the threatening of lives. To illustrate his point, Monbiot drew upon the example of the River Liza in the Lake District, where rewilding strategies meant that even after the last massive rainfall in 2009, the river was still running clear as all other rivers in the surrounding areas were bursting their banks.
Meandering River Liza in Ennerdale. Source |
In contrast, Meurig Raymond stance on flood management differed greatly, advocating hard engineering techniques. He argued that the flooding impacts from Storm Desmond resulted from too little investment in river dredging, channel clearing and flood defences - and that there should be more money set aside for maintenance of rivers to keep channels clear. One of his main defences of hilltop farming was that it attracted tourists into north, due to farming practices shaping the tapestry of land in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Sheep farming, food production, and agriculture, he argued, are vital to maintain wealth created by the tourism industry. Interestingly, and rather unexpectedly, Raymond stated that livestock numbers are now falling, and vegetation is increasing overall, with undergrazing now causing a larger problem than overgrazing. Therefore, water is being held back by the current fabric of the countryside. He rounded off the debate by stressing the importance of agriculture - as both a creator of top quality beef and lamb, but also as a generator of wealth.
Bare hills in Cumbria due to hilltop farming. Source |
The majority of the public listening to the debate seemed to concur with Monbiot’s opinion - that rewilding river systems can prevent flooding (shown through the handle @BBCr4today on Twitter). However, farmers have expressed anger at Monbiot’s seemingly ‘anti-farming’ rhetoric, expressed in his various articles and interviews, and argue that he has little knowledge of hilltop farming practices. Personally, I agree with Monbiot; I think rewilding river systems would be an incredibly beneficial mitigation strategy to control flooding. What do you think - is rewilding a viable solution, or has land-use changed so much that it is near impossible to go back to such an environment?
Hi Celia! Wonderful post - I'm a huge fan of George Monbiot's articles - he really knows his stuff! Although I very much disagree that hard engineering mechanisms are the solution to flooding, I do have to acknowledge Raymond's point that hilltop farming is really important to the local economy. It's a difficult one but I think there will have to be some compromise in the area - after all, the cost of flood damage probably offsets the economic benefits of hilltop farming somewhat! Perhaps there could be a sort of nomadic system, whereby farmers use a certain plot for farming and the rest is left to be rewilded by fast-growing trees, and then move onto the next plot and the one they previously used could be rewilded in their place. This might be a bit idealistic but it seems critical that the natural state of the river and its catchment is restored considering all the misery such extreme flooding events bring - especially with the scenario of climate change likely to increase their frequency! I do also think it's important to set up a dialogue with the farmers - the more the scientists, engineers, local people and farmers understand each other's points of view, the more that can be achieved I think!
ReplyDeleteHi Shruti! Thanks for your comment :) I think your suggestion of a normadic system is really great, although I'm not sure how feasible it would be (or how appealing it would be for farmers) when they are unable to use large portions of their land for long periods.
DeleteI completely agree that communication between key stakeholders should be encouraged - I think that the current floods in the North have really opened a dialogue about climate change and more people are getting involved in the debate!