Environmental Management of the Flooding - Case Study Example

Name: Course: College: Tutor: Date: Environmental Management Introduction Environmental management can be described as the process that consists of: a) acknowledgment of environmental problems; b) appearance of public consciousness and political obligation to deal with these problems; c) design of environmental plans; d) transformation of these plans into laws and regulations; e) implementation and enforcement of the regulations (Smith & Petley 2009). Absence of one of these elements or poor structuring of the process comes with it disasters that are costly in terms of the associated impacts. The disasters could range from flooding, global warming and cyclones etc. For instance, the flooding that was witnessed in Sheffield City in June 2007 can be attributed to poor environmental management policies. Because of the flooding, property worth of millions was destroyed and people had to be evacuated to avoid loss of lives. As such, this report aims to look at this flooding incidence in regard to what could have been the contributory factors, its immediate impacts and significant risks, agencies involved in disaster response and state of the environmental management systems at the time of the incidence. Causes of Flooding Flooding occurs when a river or a sea overflows onto its neighboring landmass. Also, flooding can occur when a relatively flat region is hit by torrential rains since the rate of downpour will be greater than rate of percolation. The Sheffield flooding in 1864 occurred as a result of the bursting of the Dale Dyke reservoir after heavy rain. In 2007, the flood was caused by the cracking of the Ulley reservoir close to Sheffield and Rotterham in its banking. This was as a result of very heavy downpour that was experienced in the region, which was approximately 140mm in 24 hours. This led to the bursting of each of the five rivers that flow through Sheffield such as river Don. Deforestation Extreme deforestation that leaves many regions without vegetation cover to intercept surface runoff plays an important role here. Sheffield City is characterized by buildings with only sparse population of vegetation and forest or tree covers. People have been clearing forests for settlement, expansion of city infrastructure such as roads and highways and for agricultural activities. Due to lack of vegetation cover in the city, the surface runoff exceeded deep percolation that would have otherwise reduced some of the rainwater (Parker 2000, p.125). When surface runoff interception by the roots and biomass was reduced it left a lot of water to reach the river channels which in the long run, due to the large size of its catchment area, ended up overflowing and bursting the banks. Increase in Temperature An increase in global temperature as witnessed to this moment can be said to be among the causes of flooding in Sheffield City. An increase in temperature speeds up melting of ice and snow which increases evaporated water which in turn leads to faster cloud formation and subsequent unprecedented heavy rains. Such storms introduce large amounts of water into rivers. The storm water reaching the neighboring rivers caused breaking of banks hence flooding in the area. Other causes Davie (2003, p.94) also points out that other factors that could have contributed to rampant flooding in Sheffield include antecedent soil moisture, urbanization and inter-urban drainage capacity, deforestation in the catchment area, river channel alterations, climatic change and land drainage. The flooding in Sheffield can be said to have been a product of precipitation after all hydrological processes and underground activities. Impacts and Significant Risks of Flooding Impacts of flooding can be grouped into social, economic and environmental impacts. Social Impacts According to Thorne, Evans and Penning-Rowsell (2007), social impacts of floods include all risks that floods have on lives including possible deaths. It also involves the stress on the households as well as effects on quality of health, and the long term effects of total change of communal array in the Sheffield villages where entire communities were evacuated to other areas for safety as the case with the Catliffe and Rotherham villages. Sheffield floods caused loss of family and communal life as some families were evacuated from their homes and forced to live in pseudo communities in which supplies were needed to keep them moving rather than working to earn their bread. Most families had to deal with the loss of loved ones or large amounts of property. Such families still need psychological and emotional counseling to recover. The social impacts were not been given sufficient attention because it was assumed that the individual communities had the sole responsibility to put in place their own mitigation measures to counter the social impacts of flooding. This was in bit because of the thought by the economic world that the social impacts of floods do not directly interfere with the macroeconomic activity of the world. Therefore the affected communities had to device their own ways and means to overcome the trauma of loss of life, property and identity that went with the aftermath of flooding. Economic and Infrastructural Impact Infrastructure was the worst hit by flooding in Sheffield city. This included breakdown in communication and transport facilities like the Ulley reservoir and road networks as well as the threat on the power station by the storming water. Public amenities were also destroyed rendering the economy non-operational for some time in the city. This included some families being blocked out from accessing market places to buy household products or raw materials and basic commodities. The very thought of delayed delivery to the market of the required goods and services was a dread to both suppliers and consumers in this area. Destruction of infrastructure was costly to the local government since a lot of time and resource were required to replace and put the city back to usual operations. Tourism, which is a vital source of income in this area, was also greatly affected by this flood as many states advised their citizens against visiting Sheffield. Environmental Impacts A great deal of environmental degradation was seen during and after the flood experience. These range from soil erosion, broken trees, and debris from fallen buildings, water pollution to ecological pollution through destruction of ecosystems. A sample data provided by Great Britain: H.M Fire Service Inspectorate (2007) generally gives the picture of what might have happened to the Bio-Oxygen Demand (BOD) level of water in the city since wastes like crude sewage, poultry waste, silage liquor, dairy waste, milk, and brewery waste among other wastes got into the water system. This incident is inevitable during flooding as storm water gets into the drainage systems making them to burst and spread their contents into the water systems. Agencies Involved and their Roles in the Flood-Hit Sheffield City Several agencies in the UK were involved in the handling of the flood that hit the Sheffield city in 2007. These included agencies from both the central and local governments (Ulleyweb n.d.). The Yorkshire Regional Flood Defense Committee As a representative of Environment Agency during the flooding period and beyond, the committee was responsible for the coordination of the recovery process through the local groups and committees such as The Sheffield City Council, The Land Drainage Authority, The Sewerage Authority and The Water Supply. However the agency has been criticized for its failure to effectively manage the support organs. The Sheffield Drainage Company Another group was the Sheffield Drainage Company, which provided specialist diagnostic services through comprehensive support for all domestic and commercial drainage applications like repairing burst pipes, fixing of flood control non return valves in the drainage systems, installation of soak ways and septic tanks and offering of flood management advice. They have been instrumental in the pumping out of flood water after the flood to this day. The Sheffield Chamber of Commerce The chamber, which represents groups of companies in Yorkshire during, gave up to 100% of its resource towards the recovery from the disaster. Their main challenge during this time was human resource, which was quite inadequate. They labored under this hardship till they introduced a night shift to counter the extreme shortage. The Emergency Service Providers Among these was the fire rescue department who were able to evacuate people in the Catliffe and Rotherham villages as well as pump water from the cracking Ulley Reservoir to ease pressure on its walls which ended up saving the many infrastructure around it including a power plant. Efficacy of Environmental Administration Structures During the Floods The effectiveness of the agencies that handled the flood crisis can be said to have been ineffective due to several reasons. First, the financial returns on the implementation of the programs were based on limited samples in non-regulated areas. This made the sustainability of these organizations to be limited in terms of resource and opportunity. Secondly, most of the organizations lacked resources necessary to carry out their work which limited their scope of success. The agencies were short of skilled or trained personnel to execute their disaster response activities. Lack of active involvement by the upper management such as the Environment Agency can also be cited as an important limitation to the success of the mitigation measures in handling the flood crisis. Instead, the agency devolved its roles to the land drainage and the sewerage and water agencies. This detachment made the coordination, management and support of these activities troublesome. Most participating organizations found themselves managing the tragedy by crisis rather than by plan because they had not prepared themselves early enough to handle such an unprecedented incidence. Preparedness in management of environmental disasters is essential to ensure effectiveness of the response actions, whether in case of unprecedented or precedent disaster. The Lessons Learnt and recommendations Lessons learnt Continued research by the Environmental Agency based on the past experiences has led to the discovery of a number of issues which can form a basis for future planning and management. In their progress report River Don Flood Management Strategy, the agency point out that the local flood risk implications are not significant to the rest of the catchment. This is to say for example that upstream river changes in river Rother do not impact significantly the river behavior downstream. This would have made handling of the river behavior in the region far easier as it would have been handled without affecting the downstream behavior although other effects on the river such as pollution would still stand. If impacts of unprecedented flooding have to be reduced, effective flood warning systems need to be designed and installed in flood-prone areas. It is only through such systems that response agencies will have time to evacuate people and property from areas to be hit by the floods and also, time to source the necessary resources that will be needed to respond effectively and efficiently to the disasters. An element of unpreparedness and making of uninformed judgment during disaster was one of the bitter lessons learnt by the agencies which made the agencies to manage the flood by crisis. Recommendations to prevent future flooding Several recommendations can be put across to help curb the challenges faced by the Environmental Agency in the 2007 flood crisis. Maintenance and improvement of river channels should be undertaken as a collective responsibility of all stakeholders within the environmental management. This may have financial implications which the higher levels must be willing to assist. The agency should embrace the need to have its populace informed and warned before such crises to avoid crisis management. This means that the authorities should equally be prepared to handle such situations whose return period is quite unpredictable. The agency should also consider putting in place comprehensive and sustainable flood mitigation measures which among others may include: integrated drainage strategy, sustainable drainage systems, flood resilience, management of surface run off and improvement of water courses. It goes without mention that all these recommendations heavily rely on the national policies supporting the same. Therefore, there should be political will by the UK to support sustainable development in the Sheffield city through formulation of policies that will support effective environmental management systems. References Davie, T 2008, Fundamentals of hydrology, 2nd edn, Routledge, London, UK. Environment Agency, 2010, River Don flood management strategy, Environment Agency, viewed July 5, 2010, Great Britain: H.M Fire Service Inspectorate, 2007, Fire and rescue service manual: vol 2: fire service operations, incidents involving rescue from road vehicles, volume 2, The Stationery Office, Norwich, UK. Parker, DJ 2000, Floods, volume 1, Taylor & Francis, London, UK. Smith, K & Petley, DN 2009. Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster, 5th edn, Taylor & Francis, London, UK. The threat of inundation June, 2007, n.d., Ulleyweb, viewed July 5, 2010, Thorne, CR, Evans, EP, Penning-Rowsell, EC 2007, Future flooding and coastal erosion risks, Thomas Telford, London Read More