Category Archives: Climate change

Earth Trust’s River of Life II wetland

Posted on by • Posted in Climate change, ecology, OFAS, wildlife

The local environmental charity Earth Trust is one of several organisations providing advice to the Environment Agency about the biodiversity aspects of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme. Their experience of introducing new wetland habitat on the Thames is an invaluable source of learning. This recent post on their website gives details of some of the early progress in their River of Life initiative, including data about carbon emissions.

This earlier post, from June, describes an innovative remote monitoring station (see photo below) which enables the Trust to gather data about the presence of various species in the project area – bats, water voles, birds, moths. Lessons from this initiative will be beneficial to the implementation of the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme and may help inform the way biodiversity gain is monitored.

Oxford flood scheme – next steps

Posted on by • Posted in Climate change, OFAS, Planning

The revised planning application for the Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme will be submitted soon for planning permission. OFA has worked closely with the Environment Agency over many years on the development of OFAS. The scheme will, in our view, greatly improve the level of protection to communities and businesses at risk from flooding, and will make the city far more resilient to climate change. We believe OFAS is the best option for Oxford, and that it strikes the appropriate balance between the many competing factors which have to be accommodated within the scheme design. Apart from providing high levels of flood protection it also includes ambitious targets for increased biodiversity. We’ve been through a long consultation process on the scheme and taken on board many suggestions from local people. That broad consultation phase is now at an end and we’re moving into the planning process through which those who continue to have reservations about aspects of the scheme will be able to argue their case. OFA’s view is that we need to come to a decision at this point so the project team can get on and build the scheme. Major revisions to the design now would result in significant delays and might even jeopardise the scheme altogether. Risk of severe flooding is increasing all the time and further postponement is not in the interest of the large flood affected community in the city. OFA will be doing all it can to help ensure the scheme secures planning permission.

Flood risk increasing says Environment Agency

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‘Significant climate impacts are inevitable especially for flood and coastal risks, water management, freshwater wildlife and industrial regulation,’ says the latest Environment Agency adaptation report published earlier this month.

According to the latest projections, summer rainfall in the UK is expected to increase 22% by 2080, and winter rainfall by 13%. The report sets out what the agency is doing to help reduce flooding of properties and businesses, ensure future drinking water supply, reduce pollution, and protect the biodiversity of freshwater habitats. The  Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme (OFAS) features as a case study in the report, an illustration of the kind of action the EA is taking in partnership with others.

Early action is needed the agency warns: ‘Despite more than a decade of concerted effort to reduce these risks, the speed and scale of climate change means that many are either increasing or remain significant. This broad conclusion matches recent assessments from the Climate Change Committee, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and others.’

The OFAS scheme will be submitted for planning approval this winter. The planning documents will incorporate the latest government assumptions about future rainfall and flood risk.

Seacourt again

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There’s a story in yesterday’s Oxford Mail on how the Seacourt P&R extension site has been getting on in the recent rather wet weather.

 

 

Storm Dennis

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Appalling floods in Wales (and elsewhere) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news

The Oxford Flood Alleviation Scheme is, unfortunately, delayed but is still as much needed as ever. In fact more so – as Earth continues to heat up the changing climate is producing more extreme weather and consequent severe flooding.

River levels above, and in and around, Oxford have already risen quite a bit since the storm’s rain over the weekend, and the next few days will see further rises in Oxford as the water makes its way downstream from the Cotswolds. It remains to be seen how big these rises are. You can follow local river levels and the flow rate upstream at Farmoor here.

Frozen

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The Seacourt car park extension site has been pumped out for a few days following Storm Brendan which has brought huge amounts of water from our extensive catchment in the Cotswolds. But today the site is again filled with water, which has frozen overnight.

The trauma of flooding

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Unsurprisingly, flooding has both short and long term adverse effects on people’s physical and mental health and wellbeing.

A BBC article today ‘Communities in Calderdale ‘traumatised’ by 2015 floods’ illustrates just how traumatic flooding can be. Here’s a short excerpt:

“Every time it rains you can feel the tension,” said Hebden Bridge flood warden Andrew Entwistle. “Especially when the sirens go off, you can feel the anxiety radiating from people, asking what the situation is and how bad it’s going to get.”

Back in 2015, the former firefighter was eating a late Christmas Day lunch when the flood alert was first sounded – signalling the start of heavy rain which led to the River Calder bursting its banks. Some 18 months later, the 76-year-old turned to counselling to help him deal with what he had witnessed.

He recalls: “I’ve been used to handling floods and disasters but this was on another level. One lady collapsed on the street in front of me. The stress levels and sheer amount of tragedy that unfolded is indescribable and those feelings don’t just disappear.”

Seacourt P&R extension – further updates

Posted on by • Posted in Climate change, ecology, environment, Flooding, Local issues, Planning, wildlife • Tagged , , , ,

Work began again briefly as mentioned in the last post. Water was pumped from the site into a ditch newly dug nearby and leading to Seacourt Stream.

River levels have now risen further. Pumping has stopped and the site is again abandoned.

Were it a car park it would be unusable of course.

This post will be updated periodically (see photos).

Work resumed on 7 January 2020. This latest flood was another 18 days, taking total flooding of the site this winter to 6 weeks 5 days. The prediction in the planning application was for 2 weeks a year. It remains to be seen how it averages out over a number of years.

Work resumed at Seacourt P&R today

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Work resumed at Seacourt P&R extension today, 4 weeks and a day after it had to stop because the site had flooded. Here is the sequence from 11 November to today.