Thoughts and floods

Whilst those directly affected by flooding must have more pressing concerns on their mind, and my heart goes out to them, I wonder if those in charge of town planning and environmental affairs should ponder the cause - and potential solutions - seriously.

Let's put aside for a second the wider (almost certain) cause of extreme weather events - climatic change, thanks to us. Let's keep the scope to flooding.

We fell the woodlands and clear the vegetation lining the watercourses, both near the source and further downstream. Trees will have a huge effect - water take up, hence reducing ground saturation; rooting that improves water percolating to the soils; and simply by being physical barriers slowing water, through their position but also dropping debris into rivers.

We all want bigger, detached houses, with that all important hard-standing for our cars. Meanwhile I see a worrying increase in paved, sterile gardens, sometimes even using artificial turf (because keeping lawns, or better still meadows, is such hard work when there's facebook to check). All of this further covers the amount of ground available to soak up water, let it enter the ground and not run off.

We think we no longer have the space to allow rivers to meander, find their own course and maybe dam up slightly every so often. We 'need' that land for farming. We, you and I, want to consume food as cheap as possible, pushing that intensive agriculture relying on artificial inputs, clearing hedges and riparian vegetation, and absolutely not having space for little bits of seasonal flooding. So we channel the rivers, quickening the flow and giving much less opportunity for percolation.

So water speeds up, doesn't have a chance to dissipate, reaches our concrete impermeable towns, and the inevitable happens. And politicians wring their hands from London, pretend that the answer is more walls, more sandbags, more barriers. More built solutions to a problem with a simple natural solution, money spent in the wrong places.

Why aren't we happy with smaller houses, greener urban landscapes, vegetation lined rivers? Who needs detached houses in a matrix of concrete and paving? Why won't we pay that bit more for food and allow farmers to leave riparian vegetation where it is. Let the rivers find their own courses, don't fight it. Reforest along the rivers, especially before they reach towns.

Where are our priorities?! We want new phones, boxing day sales, social media presence and status, and go to all manner of lengths to achieve them. But ask the people mopping out their homes and shops in the north if any of that matters to them right now. Or if we showed that riverside woods helped, would people accept less paving, less house space, and more natural space?

Yet another ecosystem service we've lost through greed and a sense of mastery. How many others will there be?