My last message to this list made some comments on U.K. flood management,
but I have realised that it would have been more appropriate to
differentiate between different parts of the U.K. In particular, the flood
management situation in Scotland is quite different from England and Wales
and I believe that differences are also emerging between England and Wales.
Northern Ireland is yet again different as are policies and practices in the
U.K. Overseas Territories.
The key lesson from my mistake is that Scotland has advanced far beyond
England in many areas of flood management. The following report provides
detailed information and examples:
Crichton, D. "Flood Risk and Insurance in England and Wales: Are There
Lessons to be Learned from Scotland?". Benfield Hazard Research Centre,
Technical Papers 1, Version 2, updated 15 April 2003. Download from
http://www.benfieldhrc.org under "Publications".
One question, the answer to which might be transferable to other locations
and for other hazards, is why has such a disparity emerged? What are the
root causes? Are either the flood hazard or the flood vulnerability so
different between England and Scotland that different approaches are
required? Are more resources available in Scotland? (Except that the
government in London recently provided a blank cheque for a war, the
military part of which finished reasonably quickly. Since the same level of
input is not being provided for post-war long-term development, plenty
resources from the remainder of that blank cheque should now be available
for other issues, such as flooding. Am I perhaps being naïve?)
Or should we look at the political management of the flood issue and realise
yet again how much more national governments could serve their citizens on
risk issues, if they would choose to do so? In other words, it is the usual
story of resource input and allocation rather than of resource availability.
And an unwillingness to accept the long-term substantial benefits of
making resources available.
At least we now have a relative success story in Scotland to illustrate what
can and should be done. Let us put the successes into practice elsewhere.
Best wishes,
Ilan
_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
|
