Investigation into application of NFM techniques, with focus on potential for upscaling and/or assessment of efficacy of attenuating extreme events

在英国，由于全球气候变化和土地利用的变化，近年来重大洪水事件的严重程度和频率明显增加。灾难性的洪水事件也发生在欧洲和世界各地的许多其他国家。随着经济的快速发展和人口的增长，洪涝灾害造成的损失通常是巨大的。极端事件增多的趋势预计将继续下去。传统上，发达国家的防洪主要以工程防御为主，而发展中国家可以采取更基本的措施来减少洪灾的影响。然而，由于极端事件的频繁发生，依靠工程防御工事来防洪变得越来越不现实和具有挑战性。因此，越来越需要替代洪水管理与自然资源合作，以确保洪水管理的可持续性，并提高社会的复原力。本研究旨在采用并进一步发展自然洪水管理(NFM)技术，以提高对极端条件下洪水事件潜在过程的理解，以及对洪水风险的预测和评估能力。这项研究的主要目标包括：1)通过流域改善的工程基础/基线设计目标(NFM或其他)，量化/评估人类活动(土地利用、压实)对洪水过程的影响；2)了解流域尺度上的问题，以便通过数据分析、建模和实地调查，最有效地针对工程工程恢复流域过程；3)应用NFM技术评估洪水对水生态、鱼类通道、泥沙淤积、水道/水库堵塞以及集水区、湿地和洪泛区的功能的影响；4)与行业合作伙伴(如奥雅纳)、客户和股东合作，将研究成果纳入设计、维护、政策制定、立法和监管框架，以实现长期的社会复原力和食品和水供应的安全。

In the UK, it becomes evident that the severity and frequency of major flood events have significantly increased in recent years, resulted from the global climate change and change of land use. The catastrophic flood events have also been seen in many other countries in Europe and worldwide. With the rapid economic development and population growth, the costs of damages from the flood events are usually huge. The trend of the increasing extreme events is expected to continue. Traditionally, the flood prevention is mainly based on heavily engineered defences in the developed countries, while the developing countries may take more basic approaches to reduce the impact from floods. However, due to the frequent occurrence of the extreme events, the reliance on the engineered defences for flood protection becomes increasingly unrealistic and challenging. Therefore, there have been an increased need for the alternative flood management to work with natural resources to ensure the sustainability of the flood management and to increase the resilience of the society. This study is to adopt and further develop the Natural Flood Management (NFM) techniques to improve the understanding the underlying processes of flood events under the extreme conditions, and the capability of predicting and assessing the flood risk. The key objectives of this study include: 1) Quantifying/assessing the changes made to the catchment function by human activity (land use, compaction) in terms of impact on flood hydrograph, through the engineering basis / baseline design target of catchment improvements (NFM or other); 2) Understanding the problems at a catchment scale to allow the engineering works to be targeted most effectively for catchment process restoration through the data analysis, modelling and field surveys; 3) Applying the NFM techniques to assess the impacts of floods on aquatic ecology, fish passage, sedimentation, clogging of waterways/reservoirs, as well as the function of catchment, wetlands and flood plains; 4) Working with Industry partners (such as Arup), clients and stockholders to incorporate the research results in design, maintenance, policy making, legislation and regulatory framework, for long term societal resilience and security of food and water supply.