Citation

McMinn WR, Yang Q, Scholz M. J. Environ. Manage. 2010; 91(9): 1855-1863.

Affiliation

Institute for Infrastructure and Environment, School of Engineering, The University of Edinburgh, William Rankine Building, Mayfield Road, The King's Buildings, Edinburgh EH9 3JL, Scotland, United Kingdom.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.04.009

PMID

20537459

Abstract

Severe rainfall events have become increasingly common in Europe. Flood defence engineering works are highly capital intensive and can be limited by land availability, leaving land and communities exposed to repeated flooding. Any adaptive drainage structure must have engineered inlets and outlets that control the water level and the rate of release. In Scotland, there are a relatively high number of drinking water reservoirs (operated by Scottish Water), which fall within this defined category and could contribute to flood management control. Reducing the rate of runoff from the upper reaches of a catchment will reduce the volume and peak flows of flood events downstream, thus allowing flood defences to be reduced in size, decreasing the corresponding capital costs. A database of retention basins with flood control potential has been developed for Scotland. The research shows that the majority of small and former drinking water reservoirs are kept full and their spillways are continuously in operation. Utilising some of the available capacity to contribute to flood control could reduce the costs of complying with the EU Flood Directive. Furthermore, the application of a previously developed classification model for Baden in Germany for the Scottish data set showed a lower diversity for basins in Scotland due to less developed infrastructure. The principle value of this approach is a clear and unambiguous categorisation, based on standard variables, which can help to promote communication and understanding between stakeholders.

Language: en