The Emperor's New Flood Protection



It has been a little while now since flood-waters (and how to manage them) were front page news. The dredging lobby got their wish — despite the negligible effect this would/​will have on protection or recovery in the event that similar rainfall hits Somerset.

Little attention has been paid to one isolated part of Somerset that didn’t flood during the deluge — the part where upland floodwater storage measures had been put in place…

Ten years down the line, progress towards adopting DEFRA’s Making Space for Water” policy is glacially-slow.

This progress seems even poorer given that these notions of managing flood risk have been with us since the 1920’s and earlier…

Why should this be the case?

Dr. Karen Potter has been a Biologist, A Town Planner and now researches the science behind how and why certain ideas are blocked in Society — and how some ideas are Solidified and Enacted.

Watch her fascinating talk for all the insights into why we are currently locked into cosmetic flood prevention measures to pacify the electorate on a short-term basis (whilst society is denied the more effective measures that are known to exist and are feasible to apply).