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Largest Flood Storage Scheme in Europe Opened
01 Nov 2006
The largest flood storage project in Europe, the Alkborough Flats Tidal Defence Scheme in Lincolnshire in the UK, which will reduce the risk of flooding for 300,000 people and become a haven for wildfowl and wading birds, has been formally opened by the Environment Agency. The scheme, which will involve breaching the existing flood defences, will help lower high tide levels by allowing water from the estuary to run over the Alkborough Flats to create a massive flood storage area.
The managed realignment at Alkborough allows flood water from the Humber Estuary to spill out of the river during the highest tides to fill the low lying land. The capacity of the site is so great that the Environment Agency is predicting a 150mm reduction in high tide levels over a large part of the upper estuary.
The project will also create a huge new inter-tidal habitat, attracting more species of wildfowl and wading birds to the area including shelduck, wigeon, teal, avocet and redshank.
The site is being used as a demonstration project to help promote new approaches to the impacts of sea level rise across Europe. The effects of climate change are expected to increase high tide levels in the Humber Estuary, which, if defences were left as they are, would increase the risk of flooding for the 300,000 people who live in the area.
Ian Pearson, UK Environment and Climate Change Minister, officially opened the scheme, which is the second managed realignment site on the Humber Estuary to be completed as part of the Humber Strategy. The total cost of the scheme is £10.2m, with the funding coming from a wide range of sources including DEFRA, Yorkshire Forward (the Regional Development Agency), the European Union (via the Interreg programme), English Nature and the Heritage Lottery Fund.
By DAVID FOXWELL
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