News
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New Report on Climate Change Risk Assessment
By Ivan Haigh Recently, I was involved in a new report released last week called ‘Climate Change: A Risk Assessment’, led by Sir David King and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The most important decision any government has to make about climate change is one of priority: how much effort to expend on countering it, relative to the effort that must be spent on…
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Got any photos of coastal flooding?
Do you have any photographs of coastal flooding from recent or past events which you are willing to share? We want to investigate these in order to improve understanding of exactly which areas were flooded and to what water depth. We are particularly interested in photos showing coastal flooding in the UK, but welcome photos from any part of the world. We also welcome photos showing river…
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The 10th March 2008 south coast event: flooding at Emsworth
The 10th March 2008 event was among the worst floods to impact the south coast during the last century. Emsworth, a coastal town in Hampshire located by Chichester harbour, saw large areas flooded at high tide during this event. A collection of photographs made available by Emsworth Residents Association gives a good indication of the extent of flooding, which included the A259 and other local roads.
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SurgeWatch mentioned in a pack used to brief MPs ahead of their debate on coastal flood risk.
Last Tuesday (7th July 2015) evening, a debate was held in Westminster regarding Coastal Flood Risk. The MP in charge of the debate was Melanie Onn. Prior to debates like this, debate packs are produced that provide a summary or overview of the issue being debated and identify relevant briefings and useful documents, including press and parliamentary material. We are very pleased that SurgeWatch…
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Photos from the archives: a comparison of the 1953, 1978, and 2007 east coast floods
In the SurgeWatch blog, we have mentioned the ‘big flood’ of 1953 on several occasions recently. A number of key events have affected the UK’s east coast since. In the build up to the 5 December 2013 event, a regional newspaper – The Eastern Daily Press – covering Norfolk (which was badly hit during the 1953 flood) and surrounding area published an article containing a collection…
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The Somerset flood of December 1981 - in photos
The Somerset flood during 13th December 1981 led to severe damages over an extensive area, while impacting around 1,000 properties, loss of over 25,000 heads of livestock, and £6 million in repair costs. Flood water reached a pump house at Hinkley nuclear power plant, and the subsequent failure of all 6 electric pumps led to closure of the “A” station for several weeks. Part of the…
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The 5-6 December 2013 East Coast surge: Post-event field survey & analysis by Dr Tom Spencer et al
By Matthew Wadey Following the notorious 31 January – 1 February 1953 storm surge (which killed over 300 people the UK’s east coast), Britain’s leading coastal geomorphologist lost no time in travelling to the east coast to investigate: James Alfred Steers was head of the Department of Geography at Cambridge, and a coastal physiographer and early promoter of coastal zone planning and coastal conservation (Spencer, 2011).
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The 3rd January 2014 event: video evidence of flooding
Early January 2014 saw a series of storms impact the UK, with severe flooding experienced around the country. The event on the 3rd January is noted for producing a sea level return period of 244 years at Portpatrick, Scotland. With sea levels exceeding a 1 in 5 year return period at 20 sites, many regions were affected by flooding. Several videos available on YouTube show evidence…