Suggestions regarding how to reduce effects of flooding

[The Ham]

While probably not floodplains there's a lot of developments around Mexborough built on land near the Don, which probably won't help slowing down water running off into it.

If the developments are built to meet current planning policy then actually it will result in a showing down of water of water run off leaving the site area.

New sites have to limit the amount of water discharging from them to the equivalent greenfield runoff rates.

As this limit is set to accommodate water storage volumes for 1 in 100 years plus 40% for climate change then under most circumstances the discharge rate will be lower.

This is because the deeper water is the faster it will discharge through the limiting devices, this means that a full pond will discharge more water than a half full one. As such until the pond is full the discharge rate will be lower than the maximum.

This is also true when there's been enough rain to make the existing ground so wet that no extra water can be absorbed and so the rainfall runoff is as if it was taking on concrete.

However, unless the storage systems are full, the water being discharged from the site will not exceed the greenfield runoff rates.

As such, much as it sounds wrong, new development generally reduce food risk downstream from the site.

 

[Lucan]

there are 634,000 empty houses in the UK. Net migration to the UK is about 250,000 a year.
This is individuals not households; the average household has 2.3 people, so you'd see net immigration of about 100,000 households a year.

That is a frightening figure, equivalent to the town of Reading every year, and those houses will be full in just six years and more land being built over too. Moreover there is a trend to single person households*.

The World as a whole is facing a looming over-population problem. Its population has doubled within my lifetime. Things like global warming and species extinction are only facets of this larger problem. It will not be addressed as long as economists refuse to adjust to anything but "growth" and politicials cease wanting ever larger audiences to listen to them.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/popu...WocEhz3-8gyz9xH3qHaNoj4nZpgN7tPL&guccounter=2

From that article :

Just as there are climate deniers, there will always be population deniers who refuse to acknowledge the impact that population growth is having on the planet. ..... Population, in one form or another, touches upon a whole host of scientific concerns, including climate change. ... What is remarkable, however, is that given the levels of scientific concern about humanity’s impact on the planet, more scientists are not talking publicly about population.

*I know a couple in a 3 bed council house that split up. The woman remaining in the house suggested to the council to move into a 1-bed flat to free the 3-bed house for another family. The council refused as it had too many family homes and not enough single's homes.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

*I know a couple in a 3 bed council house that split up. The woman remaining in the house suggested to the council to move into a 1-bed flat to free the 3-bed house for another family. The council refused as it had too many family homes and not enough single's homes.

Lordy, lordy, it really is a crazy world we live in. Sadly I know of similar stories from my friends back in the UK.

 

[HSTEd]

Lordy, lordy, it really is a crazy world we live in. Sadly I know of similar stories from my friends back in the UK.

Bedrooms are unfortunately not fungible.

 

[Tetchytyke]

The World as a whole is facing a looming over-population problem. Its population has doubled within my lifetime.

I think the population expansion will slow down as the poorer countries develop; when child mortality rates drop, so do birth rates.

I'm also a bit of a Malthusian. Eventually growth must stop because we run out of resources.

The council refused as it had too many family homes and not enough single's homes.

That's common across the social rented sector, as 2-bedroom+ properties have always been more in demand. It's only since the bedroom tax came in that things have changed, but social landlords are largely stuck with the stock they have.

 

[GRALISTAIR]

I think the population expansion will slow down as the poorer countries develop; when child mortality rates drop, so do birth rates.

Unless religion rears its ugly head. I remember Mother Teresa of Calcutta coming out strongly against condoms -it would have helped stop/slow down the spread of HIV etc in that city. Their use would also slow down the birthrate.

 

[Meerkat]

Need to build lots and lots of small bungalows (and not allow them to be converted to houses) and apartments for the elderly, of a standard that they want to move in and stop living in half empty family houses. Build them in villages where they will support demand for local shops and facilities, or on the edges of the green belt where their lower rooflines will have less visual impact.

 

[edwin_m]

I think the population expansion will slow down as the poorer countries develop; when child mortality rates drop, so do birth rates.

That's well proven, probably also due to women (in particular) having the opportunities and means to plan their families, and to children becoming more of a cost in an industrialised society, compared to an agricultural one where they can help out from a young age. There is however a jump in population as a country starts to develop and child mortality falls, and the population levels out when the other factors kick in a few decades later.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Unless religion rears its ugly head.

Developed countries with a strong religious base still have low birth rates, the UAE is 1.75 births per woman, for instance.

 

[Kingspanner]

This is the absolute last word on population. Let the great Hans Rosling educate you.

 

[Bald Rick]

This is the absolute last word on population. Let the great Hans Rosling educate you.

Superb.

 

[SteveP29]

*I know a couple in a 3 bed council house that split up. The woman remaining in the house suggested to the council to move into a 1-bed flat to free the 3-bed house for another family. The council refused as it had too many family homes and not enough single's homes.

That's common across the social rented sector, as 2-bedroom+ properties have always been more in demand. It's only since the bedroom tax came in that things have changed, but social landlords are largely stuck with the stock they have.

My view on that is that when a developer acquires a plot of land, they're in it to make money, so, the plot is planned to produce the maximum number of houses that will realise the maximum amount of profit, which never aligns with the demand.

 

[edwin_m]

Developed countries with a strong religious base still have low birth rates, the UAE is 1.75 births per woman, for instance.

I can't comment on the attitude of Islam, but typically the influence of the Catholic church over people's attitudes to birth control decreases as the country develops and people get access to other sources of information, even if a high proportion of the population still claim allegiance.

 

[Tetchytyke]

My view on that is that when a developer acquires a plot of land, they're in it to make money, so, the plot is planned to produce the maximum number of houses that will realise the maximum amount of profit, which never aligns with the demand.

Social landlords don't have the same motivations, to be fair. 2-bed flats are more useful to more people, so more recent social developments were built with those in mind. It's only the bedroom tax that's made peopke want 1-bed flats.

As for developers, its an intetesting one. Blocks of flats give much greater density- so you would assume more profit- but most new developments are predominantly based around detached houses, usually with 3 or 4 bedrooms. You don't even see many semis on new developments (although the detached houses are built very close together).

 

[HSTEd]

As for developers, its an intetesting one. Blocks of flats give much greater density- so you would assume more profit- but most new developments are predominantly based around detached houses, usually with 3 or 4 bedrooms. You don't even see many semis on new developments (although the detached houses are built very close together).

Detached houses make it easier to meet noise regs and similar.
They don't have to build quality internal walls and do testing.

Honestly we need more floors on housing, not fewer.
We need houses with cellars, two "normal" floors, and a roof garden.
With modern escape regulations this will pretty much require domestic sprinklers as standard.

Roof gardens are critical because the nature of modern high density housing leaves most of the sunlit plot covered in useless roof space.

Honestly, I would prefer courtyard style houses that pack in as much floor area as possible and avoid gardens being overlooked by neighbours.