Flood Risk Hard

• Dams and Reservoirs:

  • Large concrete barrier
  • Built across a river to impede its flow
  • Restricts water flowed downstream
  • Water is release in a controlled manner
• Dams and Rservoir costs:

  • Landslides often occur at the sides of a reservoir
  • Expensive
• Dams and Reservoir benefits:

  • Leisure facility for fishing and sailingk
  • Boosts tourism
• Channel straightening:

  When a meandering section of a river is engineered to create a widened, straightened and deepened course
• Channel straightening costs:

  • Can destroy habitats
  • Expensive
• Channel straightening benefits:

  • Greatly reduces flood risk
• Hard engineering strategies uses heavy machinery and artificial structures which work against nature to reduce flood risk. Can be highly effective but at a great cost both in terms of money and on the environment
• Embankments:

  • An artificially raised river bank
  • Made by bulldozers moving huge amounts of impermeable soil onto the river banks
• Embankments Costs:

  • Expensive: £1000 per metre
  • Deprive easy access to the river for fishing and boating
• Flood relief channel:

  An artificially made channel that is designed as a backup channel for a river that frequently floods
• Flood relief channel costs:

  • Expensive
  • Habitats are disturbed
• Flood relief channel benefits:

  • When full of water, they produce a tranquil setting