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Flooding occurs across the UK on a yearly basis, primarily on floodplains. Floodplains are areas of land alongside rivers which contain excess winter water that cannot be taken away along the river channel. Today, we attempt to control such flooding by engineering and this has meant that some floodplains have been developed for housing. This year, flooding has been particularly extensive but we are all aware of the various 'flood cycles' and indeed, developers often have to develop their sites with a 100 year storm in mind. To have hit the news recently have been the ephemeral streams in the chalklands of southern England. Many of these streams, known as winterbournes, flow only in the winter and some only during exceptionally wet winters. Winterbournes occur in valleys within the Chalk that in summer are normally dry, but, in wet periods the water table within the Chalk rises into the valley bottoms to create ephemeral streams. The exceptionally wet weather we have seen recently has re-wetted many dry valleys not known to have flooded in living memory and in some instances, have flooded to the extent that adjacent roads have become rivers and nearby properties have become flooded by the rising groundwaters.
As with so many development problems, many flooding issues can be solved by good housing design, use of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) and by good ecological, landscape and hydrological design. Yes, the houses may be more expensive to build and purchase, but the benefits of living more safely by rivers and streams can vastly outweigh this in the long term. Developments will probably still go ahead in areas likely to flood, we are a highly populated, wet country. We cannot provide flood defences for every eventuality and must take on some of the responsibility ourselves. So before you buy, check out the land and its history and make your decision based on sound knowledge. And, if you are a developer, talk to us as we have an excellent reputation
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