Stopping the floods - time to think out of the box

The pundits keep telling us that continuing economic growth is a "good" and that, that "good" is related to continued population growth for a whole raft of reasons which the pundits identify as positive factors.Looking at the floods around here and listening to the calls for yet more house building in ever more places could I be forgiven for wondering if the economic "experts" and our politicians are talking about economic growth and population growth  out of the wrong orifices?

It's a matter of balance. Any defensive scheme is based on probability/cost ratio. Chuck enough cash at it and you can have a bulletproof system but is that realistic and are we prepared to pay for something that may never be needed? Recent rainfall has been unprecedented. The question is do we or should we plan for anticipated or unprecedented.

Write your comments here...Noah comes to mind.

Planning, shows how good planning is when you only need to look at the roads,how many pedestrian crossings are on junctions? 

The only logical place for a  pedestrian crossing is where people would cross, even if there was no crossing. Otherwise some will continue to cross there anyway

The only logical place for a  pedestrian crossing is where people would cross, even if there was no crossing. Otherwise some will continue to cross there anyway

Not when it's flooded?

It's a matter of balance. Any defensive scheme is based on probability/cost ratio. Chuck enough cash at it and you can have a bulletproof system but is that realistic and are we prepared to pay for something that may never be needed? Recent rainfall has been unprecedented. The question is do we or should we plan for anticipated or unprecedented.

I think the answer is somewhere between anticipated and unprecedented, CY, having revised the calculations in the light of recent experience.

The only logical place for a  pedestrian crossing is where people would cross, even if there was no crossing. Otherwise some will continue to cross there anyway

Odd that - only yesterday, driving along Perranporth high street, we had to stop twice for idiots crossing within about 20 yards of the two zebra crossings!! 

Getting back to flooding, the Thames barrier cost £534 million pounds in the 1980s also another £100 million spent on river defences. Spending was cut in 2010 on flood defences by 27% by the coalition. If that doesn't say anything I will not eat my hat.

Planning, shows how good planning is when you only need to look at the roads,how many pedestrian crossings are on junctions? 

 

 

We have a pedestrian crossing near a junction where we live, it is well used and is great as it makes leaving the side road much easier, and much cheaper than traffic lights that were asked for by the locals

Write your comments here...

Do you think our problems are a “once-off”?

We have been told that various disasters have been the exception over the past twenty years, yet such things seem to be becoming more frequent. There is always a resistance to change, usually preferring to stick with the “devil we know”, but how long will it take to realise that the status quo is not necessarily the best way forward.

Why do we stubbornly reapply old solutions when they have been shown to be flawed? They may have been well-considered at the time, but circumstances change and we ought to change accordingly.