Presidential blog: A Resilient Leeds

On a recent visit to Leeds, President Hannah Burgess visited the Leeds Flood Alleviation Scheme

On Boxing Day 2015, the highest ever water levels were recorded on the River Aire in Leeds, a city in the north of England. Thousands of properties were flooded in Leeds and wider West Yorkshire region.

Adapting to our changing climate at pace is integral to our Presidential theme for this year. It was a huge privilege to be invited to the formal opening of the second phase of the scheme on Friday 22nd of November.

Completion of the scheme. Credit: Leeds.gov.ukGo to home page

Phase two of the scheme runs from Leeds train station up to Appleby Bridge in Bradford. It consists of linear flood defences, a flood storage area at Calverley and catchment wide natural flood management. Together, both phases of the scheme protect over 4000 homes, 1000 businesses and key infrastructure from flooding in up to a 1 in 200 chance flood event in any one year.

The inclusion of the catchment wide natural flood management provides further resilience for increases in flood risk due to climate change.

Having reflected on the morning on site, my key takeaways are that:

Working as one team with a shared goal is critical.

Collaboration has been key, between multiple stakeholders including local communities, private asset owners, Network Rail and Yorkshire Water to deliver a scheme that unlocks multiple benefits. What struck me most was how integrated members of the project team were, with staff from multiple organisations (including Leeds City Council, the Environment Agency and the joint Venture BAM Mott MacDonald) clearly working alongside each other as colleagues with the joint goal of delivering the scheme.

To deliver a scheme from conception to completion on this scale in a little over a decade is a testament to their hard work and commitment. I spoke to many members of the Project team on site who are members of CIWEM and who are great advocates for everything we stand for as an organisation.

Natural flood management can be used alongside traditional engineered approaches to increase resilience to climate change.

Natural flood management has been rolled out at a catchment scale, with the 750,000 trees planted, leaky dams, river meandering and large-scale soil aeration of more than 1200 hectares of land. This is not a ‘build and move on’ approach though, and the Yorkshire Regional Flood and Coastal Committee have provided seed funding for long-term investment in natural capital for maintenance.

Innovative approaches are needed to resolve long standing issues.

For example, phase one of the scheme contains a weir that rises and falls. During normal flows it inflates to maintain water levels for navigation and to support the structural stability of historic riverside walls, but during high flows it deflates to allow higher flows to pass through the City Centre. In Phase two, 3D concrete printing has been used to help construct the scheme.

We need to consider an ‘invest to save’ approach to carbon.

If the scheme is fully operational just once, it will save more carbon in clean-up costs than it took to construct. This is the kind of thinking we need to embed across all flood and wider water management schemes.

You can find out more about the scheme here.
So in terms of the Ripple Effect, what is the my biggest takeaway to share with others to make a positive impact?

That it takes courage to be innovative and try new approaches. Given the pace of climate change, we increasingly need trailblazing schemes and bold and decisive action to lead the way for such approaches to become business as usual.

As I stood on the platform at Leeds Station heading home, I felt a bit emotional because I was incredibly proud of the fantastic work our members and the wider project team and stakeholders have done to make their local communities more resilient to flooding