Investigation into application of NFM techniques, with focus on potential for upscaling and/or assessment of efficacy of attenuating extreme events

In the UK, it becomes evident that the severity and frequency of major flood events have significantly increased in recent years, resulted from the global climate change and change of land use. The catastrophic flood events have also been seen in many other countries in Europe and worldwide. With the rapid economic development and population growth, the costs of damages from the flood events are usually huge. The trend of the increasing extreme events is expected to continue. Traditionally, the flood prevention is mainly based on heavily engineered defences in the developed countries, while the developing countries may take more basic approaches to reduce the impact from floods. However, due to the frequent occurrence of the extreme events, the reliance on the engineered defences for flood protection becomes increasingly unrealistic and challenging. Therefore, there have been an increased need for the alternative flood management to work with natural resources to ensure the sustainability of the flood management and to increase the resilience of the society.

This study is to adopt and further develop the Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques to improve the understanding the underlying processes of flood events under the extreme conditions, and the capability of predicting and assessing the flood risk. The key objectives of this study include: 1) Quantifying/assessing the changes made to the catchment function by human activity (land use, compaction) in terms of impact on flood hydrograph, through the engineering basis / baseline design target of catchment improvements (NFM or other); 2) Understanding the problems at a catchment scale to allow the engineering works to be targeted most effectively for catchment process restoration through the data analysis, modelling and field surveys; 3) Applying the NFM techniques to assess the impacts of floods on aquatic ecology, fish passage, sedimentation, clogging of waterways/reservoirs, as well as the function of catchment, wetlands and flood plains; 4) Working with Industry partners (such as Arup), clients and stockholders to incorporate the research results in design, maintenance, policy making, legislation and regulatory framework, for long term societal resilience and security of food and water supply.