The winter floods have highlighted the danger of building on floodplains, the Environment Agency Chairman Lord Chris Smith said at this week’s CIWEM conference.
Britain’s wettest winter for 250 years also underlines the need to continue improving flood defences to cope with future extreme climate, he said in a keynote speech.
In addition, there needs to be a continued commitment from Government and partners to investing in flood defence maintenance, more widespread use of individual property flood protection measures and a higher priority given to flood risk in national infrastructure planning, he added.
Speaking to a packed audience at the Royal Geographical Society, Lord Smith said: “More frequent extreme weather is the number one challenge facing the nation. The climate will throw more at us in the future and we need to be even better prepared.”
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Press Release, April 10, 2014