For Flood Prevention, We Need to Raise Our Game (And Flatten Our Roofs)

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Courtesy of Arup

This article by Jonathan Ward, originally published on Arup Thoughts as "A Top-Down Approach to Flood Prevention" discusses a cheap, simple, but effective method of easing the load on drainage after a storm: temporary storage of water on flat roofs, which can not only help to prevent floods, but also provide unexpected benefits as well.

Gravity offers a simple and cheap way to attenuate stormwater flows – by storing water temporarily on a flat roof. All sorts of causes are being blamed for the current flooding in the UK; lack of dredging, poor management of catchment areas, construction on flood plains and paving over front gardens are all being mentioned in the press.

One thing is for sure – we will be paying a lot more attention to the topic given the current experience, and the fact that wetter winters are predicted in our changing climate, with a certainty of more extreme events.

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Cite: Jonathan Ward. "For Flood Prevention, We Need to Raise Our Game (And Flatten Our Roofs)" 01 Mar 2014. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/481053/for-flood-prevention-we-need-to-raise-our-game-and-flatten-our-roofs> ISSN 0719-8884

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