Many reservoirs in Great Britain lie immediately upstream of, or adjacent to, heavily populated areas. Flooding from reservoirs can result from an uncontrolled breach of the dam or overtopping during severe rainfall, with catastrophic consequences for life, property, critical infrastructures and economies.
In his report on the summer 2007 floods, Sir Michael Pitt made a series of recommendations to improve response to flooding which included inundation maps that show the result of dam failure to be available for emergency services. Defra instructed the Environment Agency to produce simplified reservoir inundation maps for all 2,092 large raised reservoirs in England and Wales. The inundation maps will show the effects on the downstream catchment of a dam breach, showing flood extent, depth, velocity, hazard level, time of initial inundation and time of peak arrival. Such information will allow emergency planners to provide a site-specific response, including the establishment of emergency procedures for the evacuation and control of populated areas below dams which could be used to save lives and reduce injury in the event of a dam failure.
Two presentations at Water & Environment 2010: CIWEM’s Annual Conference will explore the issues surrounding reservoir safety.
Sun Yan Evans, Principal Engineer at Mott MacDonald and Andy Hohl, Project Manager at the Environment Agency will describe the key stages, challenges and achievements involved in delivering the National Reservoir Inundation Mapping (NRIM) programme, including the Trial, Pilot Study, and Phases 1 and 2.
Following on, Ian Hope, Technical Manager, Reservoir Safety, Environment Agency will describe the development of inundation maps and emergency plan templates and their part in the overall emergency planning for reservoirs. He will also highlight the essential role of warning and informing the public which is to be carried out as part of the introduction of these plans.
For those interested in finding out more, both Sun Yan Evans, Principal Engineer at Mott MacDonald and Andy Hohl, Project Manager at the Environment Agency, and Ian Hope, Technical Manager, Reservoir Safety, Environment Agency will be giving presentations at Water & Environment 2010: CIWEM’s Annual Conference on the 29th April at the Olympia Conference Centre, London. For more information, go to http://www.ciwem.org/events/annual_conference.
