At least 6 million properties in the UK are at risk of flooding, with floods in December 2015 seeing 16,000 properties inundated with insured losses across the UK totalling £1.3billion. The climate change forecast is for an up to 30% increase in monthly rainfall such as to generate a greater number of higher magnitudes, more frequent floods. Consequently, understanding the relationship between the river discharge and time is vital if we are to effectively manage river catchments. This is in terms of predicting how rivers might respond to changes in the discharge characteristics such as to reduce their propensity for flooding, reduce potential damage to critical infrastructure, and increase society’s resilience to flooding.
Lesson 1: Hydrographs and their components
Lesson 2: Changing flood frequency
Lesson 3: How stable are rivers?
Lesson 4: Sediment transport and channel pattern
Lesson 5: Sediment transport during floods
All lesson plans and data for these lessons can be downloaded below
You will also need to download this Google Earth file: Rivers - Google Earth File.kmz
