With the recent destruction of Storm Ciara and Dennis sweeping across the UK causing endless problems up and down the country. The storm has certainly made its impact on the last couple of weeks, with travel chaos, floods destroying homes/businesses and cancellation of major sporting events. It’s safe to say it left a serious aftermath.
With this in mind the importance of flood plains has sprung back into the spotlight, but what are the purposes of a flood plain?
What is a flood plain?
A flood plain is a flat area of land adjacent to a river or stream that has a history of severe flooding and has burst its bank.
Are flood plains manmade?
No is the simple answer to that, flood plains are formed in three ways. General erosion of land around the river or stream, aggradation and heavy rainfall.
How big are flood plains traditionally?
They vary on size depending on the terrain of the land and the length of the river and stream. In the USA and Brazil, they have some of the largest flood plains in the world.
Are they any benefits of a flood plain?
Pros and cons yes, they can cause long term flooding to an area damaging home and businesses if mismanaged. The pros are that with the stream of water being prevented from flowing this builds up high levels of Alluvium. This is rich in nutrients and attracts wildlife and assets with farming which has seen great benefits.
Why is property built near flood plains?
Unfortunately, due to the development of rural landscapes. As more and more houses are being built, they are getting closer to and within flood plain areas, which once they burst, these areas will become flooded.
It has been a long-standing debate for some years now with environmental control blamed for the main cause rather than building close to a flood plain.
Flood plains can cause serious damage to our homes. If you have recently been affected by the British storms and need repair work done to your plumbing systems, please don’t hesitate to contact us 24 hours a day by calling us on 0800 849 8099 or you can email us at service@happydrains.co.uk.
