Building Homes on Flood Plains

[Ipso Facto]

Why aren't houses that are built on flood plains designed to cope with flooding events?

For example, and this may seem crazy, why not have the houses on "stilts" with car ports below and the living quarters well off the ground above the potential high water level?

No matter how good the flood defenses are the rivers will always break out somewhere.

[Goosegogs]

Again slightly off topic - earthquakes - Japan is a country hit by earthquakes. Yet, they cope better than the UK does with floods.

[john4760]

Originally Posted by Kymba

One answer is STOP letting people buy their Council Houses, They were built to house people who cant afford to buy a house.. Also stop letting places get so run down that they have to be Knocked down.. when many large buildings, eg... Hospitals, care homes, Offices close down for what ever reason why not turn them into flats for those who are on waiting lists for a home, They already have Plumbing, electric,heating, and Toilets etc... it has to be cheaper to adapt them rather then knocking them down and re building Luxury apartments for those well off... Then maybe we wouldn;t need to build on Flood plains and green spaces..

I made My partner laugh yesterday when we were watching the news of all the flooding as i looked up and said quite seriously,, why has no one mentioned how many animals and wildlife has been killed in these floods!

You cant stop people buying their council houses for some its the only way to get on the property ladder.
Regards
John

[senua]

Depending on the type of volcano, they can erupt almost constantly or have thousands of years between eruptions.

[Interpreter]

This may sound silly and it very well could be, but if people go to work in the dark and come home in the dark and have to rely on artificial lighting when they are at home, why not build their homes underground and leave the surface for agriculture and surface water drainage. With good lighting and air conditioning, I doubt that anyone would know the difference.
Come summer, the population would have millions of acres of agricultural land to explore. We would be able to feed ourselves and wildlife would have unlimited room to live.
If you live in a tower block, you enter at the bottom and take a lift to the top, or whichever floor you inhabit. Why not enter at the top and go down to the level you live on? If we can go to Mars surely we could build waterproof houses.

[Martin Wilson]

Originally Posted by Ipso Facto

Why aren't houses that are built on flood plains designed to cope with flooding events?

For example, and this may seem crazy, why not have the houses on "stilts" with car ports below and the living quarters well off the ground above the potential high water level?

No matter how good the flood defences are the rivers will always break out somewhere.

Yep! I go along with that, our next door neighbours son has had a bungalow built next to the River Crouch. But he has had it built on a reinforced earth mound that is just above the height of the sea wall defences. If it floods the water will surround his bungalow but will (hopefully) not flood his home.
The downside of this...look at Bangladesh and the flooding the occurs around the deltas and low lying areas areas yearly, true it is caused by monsoons ( I think ) but at the end of the day...a flood plain is flood plain no matter what part of the world you live and will always be prone to flooding. I live on Foulness Island encompassed by a sea wall, though it is a maintained sea wall you would be stupid not to think that flooding could never happen again, the laws of averages say it will. Thats life and nature, live with her 'cause on the long run we will never beat her.
Martin

[zan]

bring back beavers

[coasty]

There is absolutely nothing wrong with building houses on flood plains,, As long as the houses and infratstructure that are put there are designed to cope with flooding,,
In fact with a bit of lateral thinking what better way than to preserve our flood plains than to build on it in a manner that allows for the flooding,
In the middle of York is a pub that is submerged every year just about and yet as soon as the water gos they are back open the next day,,, The reason is they plan to be flooded.
The problems caused by flooding at the moment are because people ( developers and government alike ) have just ignored the fact...
If you visit Germany there are huge areas of housing there that are built in flood prone areas,, But they are designed suitably....
Unfortunately building suitable houses costs extra and no one will want to pay,,,,,
Until we have a unified approach between government , developers, the Env agency and developers I am afraid the problem will get worst.

Also remember that most of the flooding last year was actally from overloaded and outdated drainage systems and not from rivers....

[Paul mabbott]

No, there are two (or more) extremely good reasons for not building on flood plains:
(1) Flood plains are biological corridors - interrupt them by concrete and wildlife has no way to migrate in response to climate change of other environmental pressures;
(2) River valleys, (i.e. flood plains, are a prime wildlife resource - build on them and you're destroying some of our better wildlife areas.
(3) From the human point of view, it's not just a matter of stopping houses from being ravaged, it's a matter of encouraging stability in the environment: yes, valley bottoms have always been flooded - so leave them as flood meadows and don't build in them!

Originally Posted by coasty

There is absolutely nothing wrong with building houses on flood plains,, As long as the houses and infratstructure that are put there are designed to cope with flooding,,
In fact with a bit of lateral thinking what better way than to preserve our flood plains than to build on it in a manner that allows for the flooding,
In the middle of York is a pub that is submerged every year just about and yet as soon as the water gos they are back open the next day,,, The reason is they plan to be flooded.
The problems caused by flooding at the moment are because people ( developers and government alike ) have just ignored the fact...
If you visit Germany there are huge areas of housing there that are built in flood prone areas,, But they are designed suitably....
Unfortunately building suitable houses costs extra and no one will want to pay,,,,,
Until we have a unified approach between government , developers, the Env agency and developers I am afraid the problem will get worst.

Also remember that most of the flooding last year was actally from overloaded and outdated drainage systems and not from rivers....

[Blackbrook Eye]

The above also raises the question, how long can we afford to have, three, four, five and even more bedroom houses occupied by a single person, or even a couple of people. I certainly don't want to be involved with telling someone to move to smaller accomodation, but it seems to be a logical solution, however painful to admit.