THE Royal Agricultural University (RAU) was delighted to welcome Dr Jean Venables CBE, Chief Executive of the UK Association of Drainage Authorities, to present its annual Cator lecture on Friday, October 31 focusing on the issue of flood risk management.

A Chartered Civil Engineer with many years of experience of water issues, Dr Jean Venables CBE is regarded as a distinguished authority on water management.

During her presentation 'Flood Risk Management: How can we improve effectiveness?' she addressed a plethora of water management issues and cited key factors; maintenance, policy, funding, legislation, planning and partnerships.

Dr Venables discussed the issue of maintenance; highlighting the importance of managing the water level and helping rivers to control their capacity – this must be an ongoing process.

One such issue is ensuring the channel is regularly cleared of silt, vegetation and debris, which block the river channel and increase the risk of flooding.

Maintenance also requires ease of access, if there are trees or lots of vegetation by the river bed they won’t be easily or quickly maintained – making it a bigger issue.

Maintenance is directly related to policy.

DEFRA measure the maintenance needs of a river in terms of benefit cost calculation; if it’s a built up area it will be maintained, if it’s more rural it won’t be because the cost (calculated against the benefit) will be considered too high.

Consequently, when the level of the river rises during heavy rain parts of the river are blocked causing major floods early on – this is what happen in Taunton in Somerset in the 2013/14 storms.

Funding and legislation are also hot topics within water management and flood risk management.

Stable and long-term funding is required.

Current flood risk prevention funding streams include environmental legislation (simple ways to help and enable wildlife) and other budget constraints, which mean that organisations must work together in partnerships with mutually-beneficial procurement systems to increase efficiency, ensure maintenance and make the funding go further.

Dr Venables expressed the considerable need for capital investment in infrastructure, as well as revenue for maintenance.

Planning was discussed in terms of housing developments and flood plains, ensuring that there is a sustainable drainage system in place for all new planning developments – more cost effective and better quality.

Followed by the question of water resources – must have plans in place for managing excess water in terms of surface reservoirs for times of drought.

Dr Venables concluded that maintaining a continuous capacity in rivers and forming partnerships between all vested parties; Environmental Agency, Local Authorities, Drainage Boards etc. are key to delivering effective water management systems.

Professor Paul Davies RAU Vice-Principal, said: “The Cator lecture is sponsored as a free public lecture at the RAU by ex-student Henry Cator, a well-known Norfolk Farmer and Chairman of the UK Drainage Association.

We are very pleased that Dr Venables kindly agreed to again share with us what we have learnt in more recent years from UK flooding disasters that can help us avoid perhaps, and much better manage, related problems in the future.

Faced with more erratic weather and prospects of increasing uncertainty with climate change, we need to understand much better how we can cope with such awful challenges in the future.”