flooding

Today's ELI is 'Flood through the window - what would you see, how would you feel? Pupils picture for themselves what a major flood through the window might look like'. In this activity, pupils are asked to visualise a flood seen through the window and imagine its likely impacts now and in the future. It uses the window as a teaching aid. Other activities relating to flooding can be found in our …

You step outside after a heavy downpour and find your backyard turned into a shallow lake. The grass is soggy, garden beds are washed out, and stepping stones vanish under standing water. For many homeowners, this isn’t just inconvenient—it can damage plants, attract pests, and even affect the foundations of your home if ignored for […] The post Why Your Backyard Keeps Flooding (And How to Stop I…

A new study offers insight into natural hazards and river restoration, potentially guiding infrastructure projects ahead of disasters like the recent Texas flooding.

In recent years, record rainfall events nationally and internationally have served to underline the threat of surface water flooding, particularly to our cities and urban areas, writes Caroline Douglass, Environment Agency Executive Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management. Examples including London, New York and more recently Dubai, have all been subjected to widespread disruption from surf…

Article written by Julie Foley, our Director of Flood Risk Strategy and Natural Adaptation, Environment Agency Surface water flooding happens when there is heavy rainfall and there is so much rainwater that it overwhelms drainage systems. Instead, rainwater collects over the ground causing surface water flooding also known as flash flooding. Currently 3.4 million properties in England are in area…

As the climate changes, the risk of flooding is increasing in some watersheds. That means how Washingtonians approach floodplain management is changing, too. Guillaume Mauger, a research scientist at the UW Climate Impacts Group, is interviewed for Northwest Public Broadcasting. 

Flood warnings are now available for 110,000 additional homes and businesses following a major effort to ensure all properties at high risk of flooding can receive them. Many properties previously considered too remote, rural, or difficult to warn of flooding, are now able to take advantage of the service. This significant improvement has been made possible using new technologies developed by the…

What is the Environment Agency’s role? The Environment Agency shares responsibility for managing flood and coastal risk in England with many partners and organisations all of whom play a really important part. Our role is varied. We build and maintain flood schemes and we help those impacted by flooding directly or by working with those responsible for emergencies. We also warn, inform and respon…

By Edmund Penning-Rowsell, Middlesex University, London The floods in winter 2013 show the damage and disruption such events can cause. Spurred on by this flooding the government is moving to secure ‘affordable’ flood insurance arrangements, after a bruising ‘battle’ with the insurance industry and the prospect that the scheme will be vetoed in Europe. Flooding […]

By Helen Pallett A group of scientists at the University of Oxford have launched a new citizen science project to help them better understand the 2013-14 winter storms and flooding in the UK. Flooding events over the last decade have received increasing media attention and have been the object of controversies around the official responses. Debates […]

Risk of Flooding from Surface Water Environment Agency release more detailed flood mapping at a time of need. Ironic that the Environment Agency release this during severe flooding events in England  (and people still without power across 24th, 25th & 26th December 2013). South East was particularity hit hard, would this Surface Water Map make any different? "Surface water flooding happens when r…