Environmental Risks of Flooding in Sheffield City - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxxxxxxx Institution : xxxxxxxxxxx Title : Environmental management Tutor : xxxxxxxxxxx Course : xxxxxxxxxxx @2010 Environmental management Introduction Environmental management involves protection and management of every component of biophysical environment including both abiotic and biotic things from disasters that may directly or indirectly affect their habitats. In order to enhance effective environmental management, management tools, systems, and standards are required. Environmental risk such as floods can adversely affect the environment and its inhabitants. The severe flooding that hit Sheffield city resulted to devastating impacts. Many people lost their lives and livelihoods, others were displaced, and properties destroyed. Environmental management is concerned with assessment of such risks and establishment of measures to minimize or eliminate environmental risks. Factors contributing to floods in Sheffield The major cause of floods was heavy and prolonged rainfall that hit the area. The city was situated at Pennies foot a point where the three fast flowing rivers, the Loxley river, the sheaf river, and the Don river intersect. The massive rain waters discharged into these rivers exceeded the carrying capacities of the rivers made the rivers to burst their banks and discharged water to the entire city causing localized flooding (Harrison, 2009). There were many series of water storage reservoir such as tanks, ponds and dams built on the rivers upstream but were completely filled by the prolonged and heavy rainfall which resulted to overflowing and flooding. The city had poor drainage system which was unable to rapidly move the massive rain waters which caused overflowing of rivers and resulted to widespread flooding. Even the major cause of flooding was extreme weather, a great number of businesses and homes are constructed on the natural floodplains of rivers. As a consequence, river Don along with its tributaries had been squeezed into culverts and channels across the town which had little space for expansion during flooding (Harrison, 2009). River defences became overtopped as a result of rising water levels and were breached by huge debris from business premises (Burnett, 2008). The sewerage system was poor and not large to sufficiently cope with the large amount of waters hitting the city. Poor maintenance and cleaning had led to blockage of sewers which caused local flooding. The sewers were accumulated with large amounts of waters which accelerated flooding. The nature of buildings also led to flooding. The Sheffield city has grown and developed over many years and uses its rivers to offer water, transport and water. This has resulted to construction of more houses and other business structures where in close proximity which do not provide sufficient space for water drainage. Majority of the houses did not have water butt which is used to gather rainwater from the roof and discharge it to a storage systems such as a tank. Therefore all rain water on roof tops fell on the ground resulting to flooding. Many homes had removed the urban gardens and replaced them with paving slabs, tarmac or concrete. The vegetation on gardens offers proper drainage but these surfaces do not permit water through resulting to heavy water runoff and consequent flooding. The worst flood hit areas were low lying regions of the town and rain waters levels increased. The immediate impact and significant risks caused by the flooding Floods affect people, buildings, agriculture, infrastructures, and recreational facilities. Floods can lead to high rates of fatalities. However, the emotional and social costs resulting from flooding are considerable and are usually indiscriminate and widespread in flooded regions. These costs are displacement from areas of residence, loss of personal properties and the continuous insecurity and fear brought about by the experience. Clean water supplies can be contaminated and lost in an event of flood resulting to immediate negative health effects on animals and people (Roger, 2006). Floods can severely affect economy with businesses losing large quantities of stocks. The Sheffield floods had devastating effects on people working and living in the city. Many homes were flooded, business activities were affected, and properties damaged. . Recreational facilities such as the Hillsborough stadium were flooded resulting to damage and losses. The floods caught many people unaware and these people were displaced by floods resulting to evacuation to safer areas. Other people were trapped in flooded buildings at night which caused them more fear and anxiety. The floods destroyed many roads and led to collapse of bridges leaving them impassible. The massive waters swept away people resulting to death and many people died as they tried to move to safer grounds. Built environment can be destroyed or damaged by flooding resulting to high costs of repair and long durations needed for reinstatement. The city incurred huge costs in relocation of people and repair of collapsed buildings and damaged roads and bridges. The communal realm is usually badly affected by damage and deposition of large amounts of debris. Many people are injured by the collapsing building and falling trees. Floods result to contamination of water as clean water mixes with fecal materials from sewer system and toxic chemicals from industries resulting to water borne diseases (Roger, 2006). They also lead to communicable diseases as evacuated people crowded in safer regions. Floods interrupt drainage systems particularly those that are poorly installed and usually devastate sewer systems. Floods can lead to decreased production and purchasing power of people in the affected areas. Agricultural sector is affected when crops are uprooted by floods, landed rendered impossible for farming. Floods sweep away top fertile soil leaving lands with infertile soils for farming. Damage of infrastructures can cause prolonged impacts like disruptions to transport, electricity, communication, health care, and education. Loss of lives, decrease in purchasing ability and loss of land value within the flood plains resulted to raised vulnerabilities of people living in the region. The extra costs incurred in relocation of affected people, rehabilitation and recovery of goods from flooded areas diverted the resources intended for maintenance of production. Floods result to mass movement of people from one area to another. Flooding resulting to loss of lives, decreased production and several long term economic effects and forms of suffering may trigger mass population displacement or migration. Migration to urban areas can result to overcrowding in cities. The migrants usually have poor living standards and they end up residing in marginal terrain of cities which are susceptible to floods. The great psycho social impacts on victims of floods along with their families may devastate them for prolonged durations of time. Loss of lives of family members may generate deep psychological effects. Displacement of people from their dwellings, loss of livelihoods and property and interruption of social lives and business can result to prolonged stress. The trauma of overcoming losses may be engulfing and generate long lasting psychological impacts. Floods can hinder economic development and growth. The huge cost of recovery and relief may adversely affect investment in public in infrastructure such as communication and transportation networks in the flooded region and at times weaken economy of the area. Frequent flooding can discourage investments by private sector and government. Migration of skilled labour force combined with absence of livelihoods and inflation can have an adverse impact on economic growth of the area. Loss of essential resources may result to increased costs of services and goods which in turn delays development programmes. Agencies involved during Sheffield flooding and in recovery phase Local Authorities Local authorities in the city were concerned with making improvements on the existing environmental management to increase their effectiveness (Smith, 2007) The highway authority cleared all debris which had by swept away by rain waters and deposited on city highways. The land drainage authority provided management and technical tools for improvement and maintenance tasks on highway and several drainage works. The authority repaired the damaged drainage systems and water storage reservoirs. The environmental agency was concerned with management of fluvial flooding emerging from main rivers in Sheffield. Great flooding from the larger main rivers carries the great widespread threat and Sheffield suffers frequent flooding problems as a result of lack of block ages and capacity in majority of smaller watercourses (Saul, 2002). The local authority dealt with expansion of water channels and culverts in order to increase water drainage system. The agency was also concerned with construction of dykes along river banks to prevent overflow of water from rivers to the surrounding area. The agency put a pumping operation in place to lessen water levels. The social care agency organized its staff who effectively responded to the summer floods. The agent organized a seminar bringing together social service administrators and emergency planners who offered counseling to flood victims in order to help them overcome the devastating loss of lives and livelihoods. The agency offered temporary housing to victims before the government could relocate people to permanent settlements. The water and sewerage company decontaminated water to ensure that it was safe for use and repaired the damaged water and sewerage systems (Hanlon, 2007). Fire and rescue service The fire and rescue service played the role of evacuation of people from flooded homes and business premises (Hanlon, 2007) it also rescued people who were stranded in buildings using helicopters. The fire and rescue service mobilized its professional crews through mutual aid to support flood management colleagues during the Sheffield flooding event. The chief fire officer directed the creation of a team of national flood response at the appeal of local and communities’ government to give advice on deployment of professional rescue resources. The service deployed a high volume pump and two boats teams to support rescue in the flooded areas. The boat rescued people trapped in flooded areas while the high volume pump supported effective efforts to prevent collapse of reservoir dams. The service visited homes which had been affected by flood water to offer support and advice to local societies when water levels begun to recede. The high volume pump effectively made sure that electricity supplies were maintained by draining water at secondary electricity supply following breakdown of the main power supply due to impacts of flooding. The high volume pump was mobilized to assist the environmental agency to offer access to heavily flooded area and pump large amounts of water (Burnett, 2008). Environmental management systems present at the time and their effectiveness The local authorities had established several environmental management systems such as water reservoirs and drainage systems. There were a number of water storage reservoirs at main rivers upstream but they were not effective to hold high water capacities. The prolonged and heavy June rainfall quickly filled these reservoirs resulting to overflowing of water and consequent flooding. There were drains systems in the city but the heavy rain waters swelled up river levels which overwhelmed drain systems in some regions leading to localized flooding. The city had established drainage systems but these systems were poor and unable to drain excess rain water causing overflowing of waters. There were culverts and channels in the city for water drainage but was a small space for expansion during the flooding (Smith, 2007). The city council had assessed a flood risk and laid down building measures to ensure that houses and other business structures were not prone to floods. However, the June floods overwhelmed buildings which now require huge repair costs. The existing management systems were not able to overcome the June flooding. Therefore the local authority planning needs to make improvements to these management systems to ensure that future flooding do not cause massive damage of properties and loss of lives and livelihoods. Present amendments in the planning policy are intended to offer a main opportunity to effectively control floodplains. The policy is creating more awareness on measures to be taken in controlling floods. Recommendations The planning authorities must undertake various risk assessment tests in order to identify flood risk and ensure that properties and people paying more emphasis on impacts climate change. Flood hazards from every source including sewers and drains should be managed, mitigated, and mapped. New developments must avoid constructions in flood risk regions and buildings must be designed in a way that ensures that they are safe to work and live in, taking changes in climate into account. Developers must be responsible and ensure that flood risks are mitigated and managed in their construction sites. Local authorities should ensure that people do not inhabit floodplains so that they are not highly exposed to flood risks. Conclusion Flooding causes devastating impacts on people’s lives and property and therefore there is a need to come up with measures that can reduce these effects. As changes in climate increases chances of flooding increases and there is a need to establish more floodplains. Developers and local authorities must consider flood risk at all stages of development and planning process and apply effective flood management measures. Bibliography Saul, A., 2002, Floods and flood management, springer publisher, Newyork. Hanlon, D., 2007, Fire and Rescue Service manual The Stationery Office Publisher, Great Britain. Roger, F., 2006, Flood hazards and health: responding to present and future risks. Earthscan Publisher, London. Smith, M., 2007, The Great Flood: How Sheffield, Survived the Summer Storms of 2007, Sheffield University Press. Harrison, M., 2009, A Complete History of the Great Flood at Sheffield, BiblioBazaar Publisher, Sheffield. Burnett, J., 2008, Flash floods, Texas University Press, Texas. Read More