Enhancing UK Flood Resilience: Past Floods, Present Threats, Future Responses

增强英国的防洪能力：过去的洪水、当前的威胁、未来的应对措施

• 批准号: AH/T006064/1
• 负责人: Richard Jones
• 金额: $ 4.6万
• 依托单位: University of Leicester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2020 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FT006064%2F1
• 关键词: Enhancing; UK; Flood; Resilience; Past

Flooding represents the most serious environmental threat to the UK today. It is a problem predicted to increase over the next few decades. The urgency with which collective responses must be found to this, and other climate-related challenges, is reflected in the recent shift in vocabulary: we no longer talk of a crisis but an emergency. Positive responses to the flood threat will require a unity of action between central government and local authorities, environmental agencies, academics, and the public. Key to future flood control will be the fundamental decisions now being taken over how the UK landscape can be best managed. Within many quarters there is a dawning realisation that if the country is to become more flood resilient, landscape change may have to be radical in conception and bold in undertaking. To be both practicable and deliverable, it is essential that the positive benefits deriving from new configurations of the landscape are communicated effectively to communities affected by change if the transition is not to be resisted and delayed.This Research Network, led by scholars from the Arts and Humanities, draws together those with interests in the historic and contemporary environment, with perspectives to offer on the past, present, and future shape of the British landscape and societal responses to flooding. This Network focuses, in the first instance, on those landscape decisions that are required to be taken to build greater flood resilience in England and Wales. Over time, the Network will look to broaden its remit to the whole of the UK and beyond. The Network aims to break down academic silos, and in particular collapse the Arts and Humanities-Science divide. Crucially, the Network will involve representatives from those agencies currently charged with building and delivering flood resilience across the country. It has the express ambition of contributing substantively to current discourse and debates surrounding the most appropriate and deliverable responses to the rising flood threat in the UK. In particular it looks to fully exploit the unique, and largely overlooked, contribution that Arts and Humanities readings of the long-term development of the British landscape and societal responses to flooding, might make in creating more flood resistant communities and landscapes into the future. Three questions, which can only be fully addressed through interdisciplinary treatment, have led to the creation of this Research Network and guide its agenda. First, can we or should we continue to rely on on hard engineered defences as the principal method for mitigating floods or should we be moving towards softer natural flood management strategies? Second, what lessons can be drawn from the ways in which communities have responded to flooding in the past and the land management practices they adopted to mitigate against floods: might these provide templates for the future? Thirdly, in recognising that landscape change will impact people's existing relationship with, and appreciation of, familiar landscapes, how, where, and in what ways might this required transformation be best and most sensitively achieved? The Network responds directly to those responsible for flood management and delivering these necessary landscape changes and what they desire from the academy in order to fill evidential gaps they have identified and which they want in order to enhance their current practice. It will establish a new research agenda in which Arts and Humanities research will play a central role in future proofing the UK landscape against the rising threat of flooding. Providing a research focus for the Network with the potential to deliver more immediate impact, the Network will work closely with the Environment Agency as they develop and deliver their plans for the future sustainable management of the low-lying, flood-protected landscape of Isle of Axholme in north Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire.

洪水是当今英国最严重的环境威胁。预计这个问题在未来几十年内将会加剧。必须找到集体应对措施来应对这一挑战以及其他与气候相关的挑战的紧迫性，反映在最近词汇的转变中：我们不再谈论危机，而是紧急情况。积极应对洪水威胁需要中央政府和地方当局、环境机构、学术界和公众之间的团结行动。未来防洪的关键将是目前正在就如何最好地管理英国景观做出基本决策。在许多方面，人们逐渐认识到，如果国家要增强抗洪能力，景观变化可能必须在构想上激进并在行动上大胆。为了既实用又可交付，如果转型不被抵制和拖延，新的景观配置带来的积极效益必须有效地传达给受变化影响的社区。这个研究网络由艺术和人文学科的学者领导，汇集了对历史和当代环境感兴趣的人，从不同的角度提供了英国景观过去、现在和未来的形态以及社会对这一问题的反应。 洪水。该网络首先关注英格兰和威尔士增强防洪能力所需的景观决策。随着时间的推移，该网络将寻求将其业务范围扩大到整个英国及其他地区。该网络旨在打破学术孤岛，特别是消除艺术和人文科学之间的鸿沟。至关重要的是，该网络将包括来自目前负责在全国范围内建设和提供防洪能力的机构的代表。它的明确目标是为当前围绕英国日益严重的洪水威胁的最适当和可交付的应对措施的讨论和辩论做出实质性贡献。特别是，它希望充分利用艺术和人文学科对英国景观的长期发展和社会对洪水的反应的独特的、很大程度上被忽视的贡献，可能有助于在未来创造更多的抗洪社区和景观。只有通过跨学科治疗才能充分解决的三个问题导致了该研究网络的创建并指导其议程。首先，我们是否可以或应该继续依靠硬工程防御作为减轻洪水的主要方法，还是应该转向更软的自然洪水管理策略？其次，从社区过去应对洪水的方式以及他们为减轻洪水而采取的土地管理实践中可以吸取哪些教训：这些是否可以为未来提供模板？第三，在认识到景观变化将影响人们与熟悉景观的现有关系和欣赏的同时，如何、在何处以及以什么方式可以最好、最敏感地实现这一所需的转变？该网络直接响应那些负责洪水管理和提供这些必要的景观变化的人员，以及他们希望从学院得到什么，以填补他们已经发现的证据空白，并希望加强他们当前的实践。它将制定一个新的研究议程，其中艺术和人文研究将在未来确保英国景观免受日益严重的洪水威胁方面发挥核心作用。该网络为该网络提供了一个研究重点，有可能产生更直接的影响，该网络将与环境署密切合作，制定和交付诺丁汉郡北部和林肯郡阿克斯霍尔姆岛低洼、防洪景观的未来可持续管理计划。