Lowland natural flood management

Introduction

Floods are nothing new. Humans have lived with extreme weather for thousands of years. However, climate change science predicts an increase in occurrence and severity of high rainfall events. Subsequent increases in extreme flooding will follow suit.

Within the UK, our flood defence system includes large-scale, hard engineered solutions in and around major cities,
flood banks and small scale engineered solutions for rural communities and farmland, and coastal engineering.

There is increasing political and public interest in how the management of the wider countryside can contribute
to the country’s flood defence system, with reference made to natural flood management (NFM) sometimes
called Working with Natural Processes (WwNP).

This guide has been produced to provide simple, clear advice on the provision of natural flood management measures for lowland areas. It is a great resource to support GCSE students' research on soft engineering solutions.

This document is based on the publication ‘Natural Flood Management Measures – a practical guide for farmers (2017),’ produced by the Yorkshire Dales National Park. It has been compiled by the Yorkshire Dales Rivers Trust, Hull & East Riding Catchment Partnership, Dales to Vale River Network and North Yorkshire County Council, with support from Natural England and the Environment Agency.

Click to logo below to download the full report.