Natural flood management – Scotland

Flooding has been widespread across Scotland in the past few weeks, with a lot of damage caused. The intensity of rainfall has been unprecedented, with many existing assumptions for modelling now looking compromised. It means the authorities will have to carefully consider how to move forwards with flood protection and planning. One key area they might look at is Natural Flood Management, an approach that involves undertaking work in the upper catchment in order to slow the flow of water to the lower catchment where flooding takes place. We are currently undertaking a lot of work which has relevance to this process, through our experiments on bog restoration which involve lots of measurement of water table level and runoff rates under different treatment regimes – but we are keen to try and instigate new projects to look at the issue more closely, as we think it merits further study.