Latest data from the Environment Agency shows that more than half a million UK homes are at 'significant' risk of flooding.

More than half a million homes are at "significant" risk of flooding and the cost of protecting them will double to £1bn a year by 2035, according to the latest data from the Environment Agency (EA).

The rising costs will be incurred from the impact of climate change that will take effect in the coming decades, meaning the risks to homes and communities will increase unless defences are improved.

The costs of dealing with flood can run into billions - the devastating floods of summer 2007 cost a total of £3.2bn according to the EA, including more than £2bn in costs to homeowners and businesses as well as 400,000 of lost school days.  The EA estimates that 5 million people live and work in the 2.4million properties in England that are at some risk of flooding and, at present, around £750m is spent every year building and maintaining the defences required for them.  Half a million of those properties are in highest risk band, which means they are at risk of flooding due to extreme weather expected once every 75 years.

Climate scientists predict that, by the 2080s, sea levels could be around 70cm higher around the southern parts of the UK, making serious storm surges and floods more frequent.  Using predictions from the UK Climate Impacts Programme, the EA estimates that keeping all 2.4m at-risk homes at the existing level of flood risk for the next 25 years will cost £1bn per year by 2035.  "Assuming that no new properties are adding to that risk, then that investment is to maintain the existing infrastructure and to invest to make sure it isn't worsened, taking into account the uncertainties of climate change," said Robert Runcie, the EA's director of flood and coastal risk management.

"What we know from the science of climate change is that weather patterns are going to become more extreme.  The risk is going to get greater and we need to up our game in response to that," said Chris Smith, the EA chairman, in an evidence session to the House of Commons environmental audit committee (EAC) last week.

"The case for flood defence is very strong.  The cost benefit of any flood defence work that we do, the benefit is at least five times the cost.  The average cost to a home of being flooded is £20,000 to £30,000.  The average cost to a home of being burgled is about £1,000.  So the damage that flooding does in terms of its impact on people's livelihoods is huge."

But getting this money out of government has proved difficult.  "The Treasury have crawled all over our figures and have agreed that our working is absolutely in order and have agreed with the conclusions that we have reached," said Smith. "What they have not done, of course, is commit the actual figures and that is unlikely to happen this side of an election or, I suspect, the other."

A Treasury spokeswoman said: "The government will make decisions about the allocation of expenditure, including the allocation for flood risk management, at the next spending review."  She pointed out that spending on flood and coastal erosion risk management had increased in recent years, from £394m in 2002-03 to £564m in 2005-06.

Not spending the money could have even bigger consequences.  The EA estimates that the annual cost of damage to residential and commercial property from flooding in England could rise from £2.5bn to £4bn by 2035 without the extra cash for flood defences.  Investing the money would save England some £180bn over the next 100 years.

"Even at a time of unprecedented financial pressure, this is something that has to be given a priority," said EAC chair and Conservative MP Tim Yeo.  "We could be more creative about getting private sector investment in as well.  Where you've got new developments taking place, it's quite legitimate in my view for the planning authority to say, look, although what we're going to ask for [in flood defences] is not directly related to the houses or supermarket you're putting up there, it is of concern to this community and we do need to accelerate investment in flood-prevention measures so we want to supplement what the taxpayer is being asked for with developer contributions."

Runcie said that flood management in future would depend on careful planning and preventing the construction of new buildings on flood plains.  "One of the things that's made a huge difference on that is a change to the planning laws where, only last year, we became a formal consultee.  In the last 12 months, of the thousands of applications for major developments that have been proposed, only 4% went against our recommendations."

Alok Jha, green technology correspondent, guardian.co.uk, 29 January 2010.

To view the original article, please click here.

The Environment Agency today announced how it will use £99.6m central Government funding to reduce the risk of flooding across the Thames region for the year to March 2011.

The investment includes funds to build new and maintain existing river and tidal defences, develop flood forecasting technologies and heighten public awareness of flood risk.

This work forms part of the Environment Agency's strategy to reduce the risk of flooding to more than 200,000 additional properties across England and Wales by 2015.

Some of the key Thames region flood defence projects planned to benefit from funding in the 2010/2011 financial year include:

• Barking and Dagenham: £12m to improve protection to almost 5,500 properties.  This includes the construction of two new pumping stations and the refurbishment of tidal sluices along the Beam River and Gores Brook.
• Newman's Sluice Refurbishment: £2.4m will be spent on the £3.7m scheme to replace the sluice gates and refurbish the existing structure at Newman's Sluice on the River Lee Flood Relief Channel, which protects 4,300 properties in the Lower Lee Valley.
• Upper Mole Flood Alleviation Scheme: £2.3m will be spent on commencing work on the £15.4m scheme to reduce risk to properties in Crawley and Horley and infrastructure at Gatwick Airport.

Thames Region Flood Risk Manager Peter Quarmby said: "We will invest £99.6m on protecting lives and property across the Thames region from flooding over the next financial year (up to March 2011).

"The 2007 floods cost homeowners, businesses, emergency services and others some £3.2bn, and this underlines the importance of continued investment in reducing flood risk, particularly in face of the more frequent and heavy storms and rising sea levels that will come with climate change.

"It is essential that we continue to defend communities, businesses and the economy from the risk of flooding, and we are developing some major and far reaching plans to deal with flood risk in the future, such as the Lower Thames Strategy and the Thames Estuary 2100 project.

"Whilst continued investment is crucial, flooding cannot always be prevented so communities must also take responsibility for being prepared - for example by signing up to the Environment Agency's free flood warning service and by preparing themselves in the event of a flood."

The investment plans come a day after the Environment Agency announced plans to automatically enrol 130,000 properties in Thames region to its free flood warnings service, doubling the total number registered.

This funding is in addition to the agreed £10m local levy funding for the region, which was announced in November.  

To view the original article, please click here. 

By Ed Owen

Consultant Atkins has backed the Environment Agency's call to increase flood defence spending to some £1bn per year.

Responding to the Environment Agency's assertion that the 2007 floods cost £3.2bn, Atkins say spending on flood defences will avoid similar bills in the future.

The consultant said spending would have to be maintained at this level until 2035 to keep pace with climate change impact, and damage could increase by 60% without cover this period.

Flood defence expert and managing director of Atkins' environmental and water management business Mike Woolgar said: "Flooding is devastating for those affected - communities are still counting the costs of the 2007 floods and those more recently in Cumbria will resonate in towns like Cockermouth for years to come.

The government must ensure that flood funding is visible, sufficient and guaranteed so that the Environment Agency and its partners can continue to take a structured, planned and consistent approach to safeguard our homes, communities and infrastructure.

Benefit/cost ratios and return on investment for funded flood defences are very high and, as the Stern Review into climate change mitigation highlights, the benefits of strong, early action outweigh the costs.  It will be much more cost-effective to channel investment into structured flood mitigation plans now to prevent future flood devastation than just responding to the most recent disaster," he said.

To view the original article, please click here.

The widely held view is that the effects of climate change are already impacting on us, are unavoidable and will be dramatic. The world has warmed up by 0.7°C in the last 100 years.

Addressing climate change needs two types of response: first, mitigation action to reduce our greenhouse emissions and, second, adaption action to deal with the unavoidable impacts.  What is the property sector's response to mitigation and adaption?

Current initiatives

According to the Department of Communities and Local Government, almost half of UK energy consumption and CO₂ emissions are caused by buildings.

Significant energy and emission savings are being encouraged in the built environment through recent initiatives including Energy Performance Certificates, the Code for Sustainable Homes, zero carbon buildings, green home services and eco towns.  Much of this is legislation-led and we have yet to see significant behavioural change in the sector.

If we fail to adapt our building location and design we have to accept a vulnerability to change, particularly in densely populated areas.  Weather is expected to be more extreme in the future.  For example, the European Environment Agency suggests that the UK heat wave in Summer 2003 led to a 20% increase in building subsidence claims.

Long term spatial planning and design initiatives will be key to this.  We will need to construct buildings that are less vulnerable to flood risks and that will suffer less from increasing temperatures, for example, by limiting south-facing windows and increasing insulation to keep heat out.  This is far preferable to the alternative which is increased air conditioning and energy consumption.

With a combined targeted growth for the East of England and East Midlands of 951,000 new homes by 2030, sustainable building practices are essential.  Climate change is, of course, of direct interest to us as an island with sea levels expected to rise by up to 83cm by the 2050s.

Policies that will directly affect buildings are also emerging such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme which starts in April.  Legislation covering planning, energy and housing is now making direct reference to climate change.

Legislation includes:

• the Planning Act 2008 which introduces new procedures for large projects of national significance such as wind farms and nuclear power stations;
• Planning Policy Statement (supplemental to PPS1) on planning and climate change; and
• the Planning and Energy Act 2008 which requires local authorities to treat climate change as a material consideration when determining applications.

This legislation means that local authorities must seriously aim to meet government targets for zero carbon buildings, reduction of greenhouse gases and the development of low carbon technologies.

A new market for green buildings?

In this context the RICS has recently set up a UK Climate Change Action Plan.  The property profession needs to engage actively on climate change and the RICS is a keen driver in the market working closely with policy makers.  Policies such as the introduction of energy certificates and carbon property taxing are intended to create a new market for sustainable buildings which in turn will create value and opportunities.

Many companies are now choosing to invest in or occupy green buildings, their reasons for doing so being quite varied.  Direct economic benefits such as medium to long term savings in energy costs are the drivers for some.  Others are making the decision based on more indirect and less quantifiable reasons, such as reputation enhancement due to green policies, risk avoidance and ethical behaviour.

We have seen that the trend in legislation is to get ever tighter and so use of green technology in buildings can have the longer term benefit of conformity without further adaption and cost.  The oil and gas sectors have been particularly focused in green buildings, as are businesses which are characterised by a high reliance on skilled employees, such as legal services since the quality of working conditions is a key factor in their success.

Initiatives such as the Carbon Disclosure Project are now allowing investors to assess the financial impact of climate change on their potential investments.  If the property sector responds to the challenges well, new markets will emerge in green buildings as they become higher value assets to own, sell and let.

Assessing the Future of Our Coastal and Estuarine Cities.

Retreating inland, creating habitable defence structures and building out into the sea are three options proposed to cope with the extremities of rising sea levels, in a futuristic project released today by the Royal Institute of British Architects' (RIBA) think tank Building Futures and the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE).

The think-piece Facing up to Rising Sea Levels: Retreat, Defend, Attack? warns that the future of our coastal cities is in jeopardy due to rising sea levels, sinking landmasses and an increase in storm frequency.  With over 12,000 km of coastline, radical thinking is urgently needed to protect the UK's at-risk communities from extreme flooding.

Focusing on Kingston Upon Hull and Portsmouth, two of the UK's highest flood risk areas, the research presents six scenarios set up to 90 years in the future, proposing different solutions based around three realistic briefings.

Retreat (or managed realignment): rising sea levels have reduced landmass.  Hard engineering defences are no longer sustainable or affordable.  Moving the line of defence inland, allowing flood water to occupy previously protected city areas is the only option.

Defend: there is a growing deficit on flood defences which public funding is not covering, but the benefits of preventing water entering the existing cities outweigh the costs.  Flood defence systems must be made commercially viable to attract private investment.

Attack: the population of the UK has increased significantly, meaning building out into the water, via stilted and floating structures, is an attractive option to alleviate pressure inland.  This has been proven successful overseas and due to high demand for space the public and private sector are both willing to invest in expanding seaward.

"The scenarios we have created are extreme, but it is an extreme threat we are facing," said Ruth Reed, RIBA President.  "Approximately 10 million people live in flood risk areas in England and Wales, with 2.6m properties directly at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea.  However, if we act now, we can adapt in such a way that will prevent mass disruption and allow coastal communities to continue to prosper.  But the key word is 'now'."

The report urges Government, built environment professionals, planning authorities and the public to focus on tackling the man-made obstacles that currently prevent such solutions being made a reality.

"A proactive and united, almost war-like approach is needed if we are to win the battle against what is set to be our biggest challenge in the next century, the 'water invasion'," said Ben Hamer, Chair of the ICE steering group.

"Some very difficult decisions need to be made in the near future, and to do this we need integrated thinking.  The UK must urgently change the way it plans, builds and designs at-risk communities.

This requires a strategic vision at local and national level, more co-ordination and improved communication between stakeholders, and some very creative thinking about how solutions can be developed to be financially sustainable."

The scenarios were master-minded by a group of top architects, civil engineers, city designers, planners, developers, policy-makes, ecologists and futurologists.

The full project, including sketches and details of the proposed "new cities," will be exhibited at the Building Centre, London 6th Jan - 29th Jan 2010, before travelling to Portsmouth 15th February - 27th February, and Kingston-upon-Hull 15th April - 28th April 2010.

To view the original article, please click here.

The report "Facing Up to Rising Sea Levels" is available for download at the bottom of this page.

"I find it amazing that there are four or five million pound houses by the road and we are their view - we've got a better view than them." - Tamsin Fox-Davies

Elert Gadget - 11/01/2010

It boasts spectacular views, top of the range fittings and a fabulous roof top pool.

In fact it has everything the aspiring home owner could want from a crash pad in one of London's most exclusive neighbourhoods.

But whoever snaps up this prime pied a terre will need their sea legs - or rather their river legs, as it's a boat.

With a price tag of £1 million, it is thought to be one of the most expensive houseboats (think barge rather than narrowboat) ever marketed.

That might seem rather a lot for a floating home, but if it's all about location, then Ocean, as she is named, has it.

The three-bedroomed vessel is moored at Cadogan Pier, on the River Thames, next to London's Albert Bridge and a stone's throw from Chelsea's King's Road.

According to estate agents Foxton's, although the price tag is high, it's good value compared with other properties in the area.

Anyone buying Ocean will be looking at a bill of around £720 per square foot, excluding the swimming pool and the terrace, compared with a cost of around £1,000 per square foot for flats in the same location.

High-earning individuals such as lawyers and surgeons use the boats as floating pieds-a-terre, while maintaining other homes elsewhere.

Most of the boats moored at the pier are barges, rather than lavish yachts, which look unassuming from the outside but are far from unassuming on the inside.

Ocean, which was brought over from France by its current owner, a property developer, and refitted, is a sprawling 1,388 square feet.

Its exterior is sleek, with neat hedging decorating the 577 square foot deck.

Inside are three en-suite bedrooms - including one with a dressing room - a kitchen and dining area, a reception room, a study and a utility room.

So as not to lose the maritime flavour, one room is entirely timber clad like a vintage ship's cabin of yesteryear.

High specification throughout, it has wooden floors in living areas, carpeted bedrooms and a modern open plan kitchen - complete with dishwasher.  There is also a freestanding roll top bath in one of the bathrooms.

Other boats moored at the pier include Sir Malcolm Cambell's river cruiser Bluebird of Chelsea, a Dunkirk Little Ship, a Finnish ice-breaking tug and a barge that was split in half and transported to the UK across the Alps by truck.

Tamsin Fox-Davies, who lives at the pier with her pier master husband Alan Grattan, said there was a lot of appeal to a floating home.

"This is pretty much the most sought after mooring in London," she said.  "Spaces very rarely come up, so the only real way to get a space here is to buy a boat here.

A really interesting mix of people have boats here and there is a lot of history.

I find it amazing that there are these four or five million pound houses by the road and we are their view - we've got a better view than them."

A spokeman for Foxtons said: "The important thing to note is that the boat isn't just a houseboat completely stuck in the mud, it does work and go up and down the river or on the sea.  And it's a great pied a terre.

"It's very beautiful and despite being in the middle of town there is a real sense of peace." 

Ian Brownbridge, sales managed at Foxtons' Sloane Square office, said: "We have had quite a lot of interest in it.

People love it but they find it difficult to get their head around spending £1 million on a boat".

To view the original article, please click here.

Critics says an influential prediction of a 6ft rise in sea levels is flawed.  Jonathan Leake reports.

CLIMATE science faces a new controversy after the Met Office denounced research from the Copenhagen summit which suggested that global warming could raise sea levels by 6ft by 2100.

The research, published by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, created headline news during the United Nations summit on climate change in Denmark last month.

It predicted an apocalyptic century in which rising seas could threaten coastal communities from England to Bangladesh and was the latest in a series of studies from Potsdam that has gained wide acceptance among governments and environmental campaigners.

Besides underpinning the Copenhagen talks, the research is also likely to be included in the next report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change.  This would elevate it to the level of global policy-making.

However, the studies, led by Stefan Rahmstorf, professor of ocean physics at Potsdam, have caused growing concerned among other experts.  They say his methods are flawed and that the real increase in sea levels by 2100 is likely to be far lower than he predicts.

Jason Lowe, a leading Met Office climate researcher, said: "These predictions of a rise in sea level potentially exceeding 6ft have got a huge amount of attention, but we think such a big rise by 2100 is actually incredibly unlikely.  The mathematical approach used to calculate the rise is simplistic and unsatisfactory."

The row comes just weeks after the so-called climategate affair when emails leaked from the University of East Anglia's Climate Research Unit suggested that scientists tried to withhold data from public scrutiny.

The new controversy dates back to January 2007, when Science magazine published a research paper by Rahmstorf linking the 7in rise in sea levels in 1881-2001 with a 0.7C rise in global temperature over the same period.

Most scientists accept those data and agree that sea levels will continue to rise.  However, Rahmstorf then parted company from colleagues by extrapolating the finding to 2100 - when the world is projected to have warmed up by up to 6.4C unless greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced.

Based on the 7in increase in 1881-2001, Rahmstorf calculated that such a spike in temperature would raise sea levels by up to 74in - a jump that stunned other experts.

They say that it is unsafe to use the relatively small increases in sea levels seen in the 19th and 20th centuries to predict such extreme changes in future.

Another critic is Simon Holgate, a sea-level expert at the Proudman Oceanographic Laboratory, Merseyside.  He has written to Science magazine, attacking Rahmstorf's work as "simplistic".

"Rahmstorf is very good at publishing extreme papers just before big conferences like Copenhagen when they are guaranteed attention", said Holgate.  "The problem is that his methods are biased to generate larger numbers for sea-level rise which cannot be justified but which attract headlines."

One key problem cited by Holgate is that much of the 1881-2001 sea-level rise came from small glaciers melting in regions such as the Alps and Himalayas.  Such glaciers are, however, disappearing fast and will be largely gone by 2050.  It means further rises in sea levels would have to come from increased melting of the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets.

These hold enough water to raise global sea levels by more than 200ft, but their recent contribution to sea-level rise has been negligible.

Jonathan Gregory, a sea-level specialist at the Met Office, said: "We do not know enough about the physics of large ice sheets to predict how global temperature rise will affect them."

Rahmstorf said he accepted the criticism but his work was "the best system we have got".

"In my heart I hope my critics are right because a rise of the kind my work predicts would be catastrophic," he said.  "But as scientists I have ti look at the evidence... my figures for sea-level rise are likely to be an underestimate of what the world will face by 2100."

To view the original article, please click here.

The world must take action on climate change at Copenhagen even if the science is not correct, Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister has suggested.

Following the ‘climategate scandal’, Mr Blair said the science may not be “as certain as its proponents allege”.

But he said the world should act as a precaution against floods, droughts and mass extinction caused by climate change, in fact it would be “grossly irresponsible” not to.

The first week of key UN negotiations on climate change saw clashes between the rich and poor world over the failure of countries like the US to commit to strict cuts in carbon dioxide.

Later this week world leaders, including Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama, will arrive.

Mr Blair admitted that the talks are “one of the toughest negotiations that international leaders will ever have been involved in.”

But despite sceptics claiming emails stolen from the University of East Anglia question the science, he said it was urgent to act now.

“It is said that the science around climate change is not as certain as its proponents allege. It doesn’t need to be. What is beyond debate, however, is that there is a huge amount of scientific support for the view that the climate is changing and as a result of human activity,” he said.

“Therefore, even purely as a matter of precaution, given the seriousness of the consequences if such a view is correct, and the time it will take for action to take effect, we should act. Not to do so would be grossly irresponsible.”

A new report from the ‘Breaking the Climate Deadlock Initiative’ found that the current commitments of rich countries would not be enough to stop global warming

But Mr Blair insisted that even a weak agreement would set the world on a path to a "low carbon future" by encouraging investment in green energy and he suggested a review every five years to toughen targets.

He also called for an agreement to halt deforestation that is responsible for a fifth of the world's emissions by paying poor countries not to chop down trees.

Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, called for a crack down on illegal logging and suggested a £15bn fund to set up the new system of forest protection.

Across town Ed Miliband, the Energy and Climate Change Secretary, was locked in a meeting with more than 40 other environment ministers to try and progress the talks.

On Tuesday the Prince of Wales will arrive at the conference to give a speech that is expected to also call for a deal to stop deforestation.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California and Nick Griffin, leader of the British National Party are also all due to speak at the conference this week.

To view the original article, please click here.

By Louise Gray, in Copenhagen (The Telegraph)

We face a threat as terrible as the rise of fascism, says Johann Hari. Now we must rise to the challenge.

Mohammed Nasheed knows what global warming means, because he sees it every day. He survived years of imprisonment and torture to lead his country – the Maldives – to democracy. But now, as its President, he is being forced to watch as his homeland is wiped from the map. With each year that passes, the rising sea claims more land, and at the current rate it will claim everything.

He knows why. We know why. It is because we have released massive amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and we aren't stopping. Unless we turn around – fast – the Maldives will be gone.

Today, he has a final plea. President Nasheed says: "Copenhagen can be one of two things. It can be an historic event where the world unites against carbon pollution in a collective spirit of co-operation and collaboration, or Copenhagen can be a suicide pact. The choice is that stark."

If we fail, the story of the Maldives will become our story. A ream of scientific studies now suggest we could be on course for 6°C of global warming this century. It doesn't sound like much at first. But the last time the world warmed by six degrees so fast was at the end of the Permian period, 251 million years ago. The result? Almost everything on earth died.

The only survivors were a few shelled creatures in the oceans, and a pig-like creature that had the land to itself for millions of years. The earth was racked by "hypercanes" – hurricanes so strong they even left their mark on the ocean floor. Oxygen levels in the atmosphere plunged to 15 per cent; low enough to leave any fast-moving animal gasping for breath. These six degrees of separation stand between us and a planet we do not recognise and cannot live on.

The fever of denialism is natural. This is so far outside our experience that is seems intuitively untrue, wrong, or even mad. I desperately wish the deniers were right: I would jump on the next flight to Tahiti for a month-long party. But the scientific consensus is overwhelming – as strong as the consensus that smoking causes lung cancer, or HIV causes Aids. The deniers are a discredited fringe with virtually no scientists currently working in the field. If you release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere on an industrial scale year after year, the world will get much warmer, and many of us will die.

I have seen it happen. In the past few years, I have reported from three places where global warming is having a catastrophic effect – the Arctic, Bangladesh, and the borders of Darfur. I spoke to Inuit who are watching in disbelief as their historic hunting-lands disappear and the ice-sheets crumble into the sea. I stood on the drowning coast of Bangladesh as villagers pointed to a spot in the middle of the sea and said: "That is where my house was."

"When did you leave?" I asked.

"Last year," they said, shaking their heads.

But it was in Darfur that I got the plainest glimpse into a much warmer world. The settled farmers and the nomadic pastoralists had developed a peaceful way to share the water supplies of the area – but then, in the Nineties, the water started to vanish. As one refugee put it to me: "The water dried up, and so we started to kill each other for what was left." (The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, has said this is due to global warming, summarising the reports of his leading scientists.) When the things we require to survive vanish – water, food and land – we don't wait to die. We kill for them.

Whenever the scientific consensus is accurately described, the deniers cry that we are being "alarmist". There is a difference between being alarmist, and being alarmed by the facts. To know what we know and carry on pumping out warming gases wouldn't just be foolish. It would be a crime. Yet even politicians who understand the science don't believe there will be progress at Copenhagen, because we must adhere to "political reality". People aren't ready to make changes; there's still a sense this is a vague problem for future generations; the US Senate won't pass a bill; and on, and on. But in a conflict between political and physical reality, physical reality will win. You can't stand at the edge of a super-charged hurricane and shout: "The focus groups say I can't deal with you yet."

Others complain that we who want to prevent the catastrophe mustn't be negative or scare people; we should "stress the positive". Yes, there are positive opportunities to grab: it's a chance for us all to come together in a common cause and to be a great generation, remembered as heroes by history. But it would be patronising and bizarre to start there. In 1936, Winston Churchill and George Orwell warned about the rise of Nazism. They didn't sugar-coat it. They didn't wrap it in feel-good homilies. They treated people like adults. A terrible threat was rising, and it had to be stopped. This is our position today. This is our choice. We can make history – or we can commit suicide.

To view the original article, click here.

Johann Hari, The Independent

FLOOD experts are warning that the kind of deluge that devastated the town of Cockermouth last week and caused the death of a police officer in nearby Workington is in effect unpreventable.

And they said Britain must brace itself for many more such disasters.

A foot of rain fell in 24 hours across Cumbria. Just as the flood waters began to recede, it started to rain again at midday yesterday and with up to another 1.5in predicted today, a massive clean-up operation has only just begun.

Police warned residents not to go back into flooded houses and a decontamination unit was set up in the centre of Cockermouth to combat sewage that may have leaked into the water. More than 1,300 homes have been flooded and left coated with sludge. Christmas displays were washed away from shop windows.

Such floods are becoming more frequent and more severe, the experts say. This is the fourth big flooding emergency in the UK in the past 11 years.

Professor Paul Samuels, technical director of the flooding group at HR Wallingford, which advises the government and industry on managing rivers and water, said: “It is technically possible to defend places like Cockermouth against these extreme events but only by building huge walls and embankments along the river which would cost billions and alter the character of the town. For most communities that would be as unacceptable as the floods.

“The reality is that floods are going to keep happening. We can mitigate them by building good defences but there is a limit. In a way the greatest change we need to make is in the way we think about floods. We need to accept they will happen and prepare accordingly.”

David Jordan, director of operations at the Environment Agency, said: “A lot of people in my experience will actually draw a line at a certain level because of the potential impact. No one wants this huge concrete wall which is likely to be needed on a very infrequent basis.”

As water levels began to fall yesterday the destruction became clear. Many roads were left with gaping craters, while bridges over the River Cocker had been smashed by branches and other debris.

Organised power cuts allowed the rescue services to enter stricken homes without fear of electrocution.

Phil Rothwell, head of flood strategy at the Environment Agency, said: “This flood was not preventable. The amount of water was so great that no flood defences in England and Wales could have withstood it.”

The floods in Cumbria were triggered by an “unprecedented” downpour over 24 hours between Thursday and Friday — the greatest deluge since records began in 1727.

PC Bill Barker, who would have been 45 yesterday, was killed while trying to shepherd people to safety from a bridge that gave way beneath him. An inspection of 1,800 other bridges was under way yesterday.

Insurers indicated that it may be up to a year before some residents could move back in to their homes.

Gordon Brown, who visited the area yesterday, pledged an extra £1m of government money to help with the clean-up and repairs, while insurers estimated that the final cost could reach £100m.

Cockermouth, where the Derwent and Cocker rivers converge at the foot of a range of rainswept hills, was worst hit. Residents were forced to flee as the water rose to head height in the streets. The town did not have a reputation for being frequently flooded and extra flood defences installed a decade ago gave it protection against anything but the kind of flood that occurs on average every 64 years in Britain. Those were upgraded further earlier this year to protect it against anything but a one in 100 years event.

However, they proved to be of no avail. As Hilary Benn, the environment secretary, said when he visited the town on Friday to survey the damage: “This flooding is more like one in 1,000 years.”

In nearby Carlisle, which saw bad flooding four years ago, newly installed, although not yet fully completed, defences now give it protection to a one in 200 years standard.They stood it in good stead last week, and the city witnessed none of the chaos visited upon Cockermouth.

However, the prospect of significantly further bolstering the flood defences of towns such as Cockermouth may be unrealistic. This weekend the centre of the town was littered with branches and logs as the water levels slowly dropped. Riverside businesses and the recently restored former home of William Wordsworth stood abandoned to the waters while a family of geese paddled up and down the main street.

Yvonne Lambert, who lives alongside the River Cocker with her husband Steve and 16-year-old son Jordan, said: “The water came in to 5ft. When I left in the morning the river was flowing quite fast and it was higher than normal, but it has been like that before. When I came back I just stood at the end of the road sobbing into my hands. It was like armageddon. I couldn’t get to the house. Jordan had to get out through the back and jump over a wall — he was waist deep in the water.

“We have lived here for 21 years and it has never flooded. About 10 years ago the Environment Agency came and put up a wall to protect against flooding — what else could they do? The river often runs high but hasn’t flooded before.”

Brendan Pickering, 47, told how he saw PC Barker swept to his death as the bridge at Workington collapsed under the pressure of the swollen River Derwent. He was walking his dogs just after 5am on Friday when he heard a “whooshing noise” as the bridge started to collapse.

He said: “I went up onto the bridge and it seemed part of it was missing — all I could see was what looked like a big puddle. There was a car coming onto the bridge so I stopped him and warned him not to go any further. I phoned 999 for the police and told them that the bridge was collapsing.

“It seemed to be like the bridge was starting to move — it was pitching and bucking because of the pressure from the river. The lad in the car did a quick three-point turn to get off and I flagged down two articulated lorries who were approaching it.

“Then I heard the first section break as a young policewoman and a young male colleague arrived. She shouted at us to get off the top of the bridge.

“I looked across to the other side and saw a van turn side on in the road to stop other traffic crossing. There was a bus approaching and I was shouting across the river for him to reverse because I could see that the bridge was going.

“I saw the poor policeman who died come up on the other side with his lights flashing. At the same time another section went and it must have set up a domino effect because the whole structure collapsed.

“I took the dogs home and when I got back the policewoman said that she thought her colleague on the other side had gone into the water.

“She was obviously very upset and I offered to get another officer to take her place but she never left that bridge. She knew she could not leave in case other cars tried to get across. That took some guts.”

Peter Archer, 64, who lives in the centre of Cockermouth, said: “It was about 4pm on Thursday afternoon when the water just came gushing through the door. We had to go upstairs. We’d already carried some things up because we were warned the floods might be coming.

“But most of the stuff must be wrecked. We could hear the furniture being thrown around, banging against the walls. We didn’t really get any sleep. The water got to within three steps of the upstairs.

“They came for us at around 6am. There was a lifeboat outside the window. We had to jump into it. Then they took us down the main street. It was an amazing sight, the whole place was under water, everything was wrecked.

“You could only see the tops of the shop windows. All the Christmas displays were washed away. The whole town has been devastated.”

Barbara Davis, 53, said: “The two rivers have come in on us and destroyed the town. It was like a raging torrent which came through the front door. It just surged through the house. Things that were at the front of the house have been washed through to the back. The force was so strong it lifted the fridge-freezer up and tipped it over.”

Sharron Braithwaite, 40, was with her parents on a street leading to the River Cocker and was about to leave for work in a grocery shop in the town when the water levels began rising, trapping her baby girl and her disabled parents.

She said: “The river had been rising all morning but I never thought it would flood — sometimes it has been level with the wall but never come over so I got ready to go to work.

“As I walked out of the door the water must have just started coming over and I realised I had to get everyone out. I went to move the car but within five minutes the water was knee deep and it quickly became thigh deep. I couldn’t get to the house and they couldn’t get out — my mum needs oxygen and can’t walk very far.

“I really panicked because the water was rising all of the time and I really started fearing the worst. They were on the ground floor and couldn’t get upstairs, so I shouted for help. Some people from the Environment Agency were passing by and they rushed in, carrying my mum and the baby out of the back.”

Environment Agency bosses said they had been particularly pleased by the effectiveness of its early warning system, in which people at risk of flooding are notified, often by text or email, of impending weather problems.

But Tim Farron, MP for the Cumbrian constituency of Westmorland and Lonsdale and the Liberal Democrat spokesman for the environment, said that although some things had worked during the floods, such as the defences at Carlisle, the Environment Agency could have better informed people about the impending disaster.

“The agency was very good at keeping me informed, but in Burneside they only got the text messages at 7pm on Thursday when they had already been flooded for several hours,” he said.

“And on the Aynam Road in Kendal they didn’t get them at all.” He also said better drainage systems should have been in place to handle the torrents of water.

But he conceded: “In the end it’s probably true that no drainage system could have coped with this. All you can do with events like this is mitigate against them.”

The Environment Agency said early today that two severe flood warnings for Burneside had been sent by text, phone, email and fax at 2.13pm on Thursday.

To view the original article, please click here.

The Times, Daniel Foggo and Dominic Tobin

The cost of a household being flooded is far higher than the losses incurred by burglary or fire, the Environment Agency warned today.

But far fewer people have taken steps to protect their homes against flooding than against the other threats, the Government agency responsible for managing floods said.

The average cost of a home flooding is £28,000, compared to £7,300 losses from fire damage and just over £1,000 for a burglary.

Despite the greater costs, a YouGov survey of almost 2,000 people last month found that only 6% of households have taken steps to prepare for flooding, compared to 80% who have installed measures to protect against fire and 54% who had attempted to safeguard their home against burglary.

Environment Agency director of flood and coastal risk Robert Runcie said: ''People install alarms in their homes to warn of fire and burglary but surprisingly few people have taken any steps to help safeguard their home against flooding.

''Many people don't even know whether or not they are at flood risk. We can't always stop flooding but we can take a few simple steps to be better prepared and reduce the impact.''

And he warned: ''A flood is the perfect burglar - it enters your house uninvited and leaves nothing behind except distress and financial hardship.''

The Environment Agency is urging people to prepare themselves for the possibility of their home being flooded by checking on the agency's website to see if they are at risk and signing up to its free flood warning service.

People should also check that their buildings and contents insurance covers flood damage, prepare a flood checklist for use in an emergency and find out how to limit damage to their property by making their home flood resilient, the agency said.

To see the original article, please click here.

Source: Scottish Government

Commenting on the floods that have hit parts of Scotland over the past 24 hours, Environment Minister Roseanna Cunningham said:

“Once again we have seen the misery and destruction flooding can cause. Our thoughts are with those whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by the overnight floods. I have asked to be kept fully informed of developments and will be keeping in touch with the councils affected. I’d like to thank all those who have again responded so quickly and effectively to minimise the impact of the floods.

24-hour Floodline  0845 988 1188

“Climate change is clearly happening on our doorsteps and flooding events such as these are likely to occur with increasing frequency. Everyone needs to be aware of the increased risks and, as we have seen in the last 24 hours, that doesn’t just apply to those living in areas where there is a history of flooding.

“Through SEPA we are continuing to invest in flood awareness and flood warning schemes to try and minimise the impact flooding has on families and businesses. I launched the latest SEPA awareness campaign only last Friday.

“We also need to take radical steps to tackle our carbon emission levels and to ensure communities get the protection they need, which is why we have recently pushed far-reaching climate change and flooding legislation through Parliament.”

To view the original article, please click here.

Australians may have to leave coastal areas as rising sea levels threaten homes, according to a new report.

The parliamentary committee report says urgent action is needed, as seas are expected to rise by 80cm (31 inches).

About 80% of Australians live in coastal areas, and the report recommends new laws banning further development in coastal regions.

Correspondents say the authorities are divided over whether to retreat from rising seas or defend the coastline.

Coastal identity

The report, entitled Managing Our Coastal Zone in a Changing Climate, urges the authorities to consider "the possibility of a government instrument that prohibits continued occupation of the land or future building development on the property due to sea hazard".

It estimates that Aus$150bn ($137bn) worth of property is at risk from rising sea levels and more frequent storms in future years.

There are almost 50 recommendations in the report, ranging from a national coastline plan and greater co-operation between different authorities to a revised building code to cope with storm surges and soil erosion.

It does not say the government should force people to move inland but proposes that an independent group look into whether the government could - and should - do just that.

Australia's major cities are all in coastal areas, as well as the homes of some six million people outside the main population centres, according to the report, which was issued late on Monday after 18 months of study.

Alan Stokes, the task force's executive director, said banning development in certain areas was necessary if the government wanted to prevent a major loss of life in the event of natural disasters such as tsunamis.

"There's no doubt Australia will remain and continue to be a coastal community," he said.

"But we may have to be a bit more considerate about which parts of the coast we develop further and which ones we don't," he added.

Last week the government reintroduced carbon trading legislation which was rejected in August and is among a package of bills aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25% by 2020.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, founded by the UN, estimates that a global rise in sea level of some 80cm is possible by 2100.

To see the original article, click here.

The UK faces a "catastrophe" of floods, droughts and killer heatwaves if world leaders fail to agree a deal on climate change, the prime minister has warned.

Gordon Brown said negotiators had 50 days to save the world from global warming and break the "impasse".

He told the Major Economies Forum in London, which brings together 17 of the world's biggest greenhouse gas-emitting countries, there was "no plan B".

World delegations meet in Copenhagen in December for talks on a new treaty.

'Rising wave'

The United Nations (UN) summit will aim to establish a deal to replace the 1997 Kyoto treaty as its targets for reducing emissions only apply to a small number of countries and expire in 2012.

Mr Brown warned that negotiators were not reaching agreement quickly enough and said it was a "profound moment" for the world involving "momentous choice".

"In Britain we face the prospect of more frequent droughts and a rising wave of floods," he told delegates.

"The extraordinary summer heatwave of 2003 in Europe resulted in over 35,000 extra deaths.

Grim warning

"On current trends, such an event could become quite routine in Britain in just a few decades' time. And within the lifetime of our children and grandchildren the intense temperatures of 2003 could become the average temperature experienced throughout much of Europe."

The costs of failing to tackle the issue would be greater than the impact of both world wars and the Great Depression combined, the prime minister said.

The world would face more conflict fuelled by climate-induced migration if a deal was not agreed, he added.

He told the forum, on the second day of talks in the capital, that by 2080 an extra 1.8 billion people - a quarter of the world's current population - could lack sufficient water.

Mr Brown said: "If we do not reach a deal at this time, let us be in no doubt: once the damage from unchecked emissions growth is done, no retrospective global agreement, in some future period, can undo that choice.

"So we should never allow ourselves to lose sight of the catastrophe we face if present warming trends continue."

Agreement at Copenhagen "is possible", he concluded.

"But we must frankly face the plain fact that our negotiators are not getting to agreement quickly enough. So I believe that leaders must engage directly to break the impasse."

Environmental campaign group Friends of the Earth said Mr Brown had rightly identified the importance of securing a "strong and fair" climate deal.

Executive director Andy Atkins said the environmental and economic impacts of failing to tackle global warming would "dwarf anything seen before".

He said: "The next few weeks are crucial in determining the long-term future of the planet. The world must pull back from the brink and take urgent action to slash its emissions."

In recent days there have been a number of warnings that progress is stalling.

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, told Newsweek magazine "the prospects that states will actually agree to anything in Copenhagen are starting to look worse and worse".

The Major Economies Forum is not part of the formal UN process and so firm commitments are unlikely to come from the meeting.

It is seen instead as a gathering where countries can explore options and positions in a less pressured environment.

To see Gordon Brown speaking about the UK's environmental challenges ahead, click here.

To view the original article, click here.

Financial Times: September 5 2009 01:24 FT.com 

By Josh Sims

The home of Sascha Akkermann, one half of German design duo Confused Direction, has all that might be expected of an environmentally friendly, super-contemporary, two-storey residence. It is constructed from a lightweight wood covered with a high-tech sheet material. It has a grass-covered roof, providing insulation and outside space, and a window wall that can be turned towards the sun to allow the starkly modernist 40 sq metre interior to be naturally heated. There is, however, something different about this house: it floats.

Living in a floating home puts you in touch with nature again, even if you’re very close to a city centre,” Akkermann says of his Silverfish design, moored in Oldenburg, north-west Germany. “It’s a more elemental way of living. You’re close to the water and can feel your home move gently in the wind.”

Modern houseboats loosely fall into two groups: those constructed on traditional V-shaped hulls and those built on pontoon-like platforms with flat bottoms, which lend themselves to contemporary, apartment-like designs that are becoming increasingly popular. Akkermann’s Silverfish has generated so much interest that it is now on the market at €150,000, and Confused Direction is planning a spin-off houseboat design company. “Even if the traditional narrowboat style has its attractions, contemporary design opens up the appeal of living on the water,” says Akkermann.

That was certainly the thinking for clients of architects Vandeventer and Carlander, in Seattle, US. Their pontoon-based floating home, situated on a lake, has two bedrooms on the lower level, an upper common area and two decks, all linked by a frosted-glass stairwell. The kitchen is all limestone and zebrawood, the flooring exposed concrete. The structure is coated in stylish but weatherproof coloured aluminium and fibre-cement. Demonstrating what is now possible with floating homes, it even has a basement-style space below water level, which also aids stability.

The potential for innovative floating residences taps into a more fundamental appeal. As Chris Hart, managing director of Australian houseboat manufacturer Marine Dynamix, notes: “Waterfront property has always been in high demand and sold for a premium, even in cities in which there’s no shortage of housing. Why? Simply because humans love the water.”

This power of this attraction is underlined by the bookings taken by CPH Living, Copenhagen’s first floating hotel, which opened in June. As well as offering a city centre location, “each of the rooms is extremely quiet, with panoramic views and a sense of calm that comes from being on the water,” says owner Henrik Smith. “The hotel offers a totally different experience. People even hear about it and move from other hotels [in Copenhagen] to stay here.”

And the lure of the water is making itself felt in the UK as well. According to British Waterways, the public body that manages the country’s navigations, an estimated 15,000 people now have some form of houseboat as their primary residence, with another 3,000 being “continuous cruisers”, restricted to residing at a single mooring for no more than 14 days at a time. Anecdotally at least, orders taken by narrowboat builders over recent years have largely been for residential vessels.

While houseboats and floating homes provide more affordable access to inner-city living (or, indeed, the ability to get away from it), their attraction has also grown in the UK thanks to a clean-up of the waterways during the past decade. “A spate of waterside regeneration projects has made them nice places to visit, rather than dodgy places to walk,” says Madge Bailey, British Waterways’ project manager, who suggests that rising environmentalism has also added to the appeal of living afloat, as homeowners seek innovative ways to minimise their carbon footprint.

“That is not to say that houseboat living is something of a hippy pursuit – that’s a very dated perception now,” Bailey says. “Houseboat living is finding increased attraction among people who want to live a low-impact lifestyle by the water without giving up the mod con benefits of living in a building, which today’s designs allow them to do.”

One step closer to nature than bricks and mortar, the contemporary houseboat is often green at heart. Environmentally friendly materials are increasingly used in the construction process and innovative processes are being employed to reduce running costs.

Floating homes also arguably provide a wiser alternative to proposals to build on the flood plains of rivers. The city council in Oxford, central England, is considering a pilot project, operated by the Department of Communities and Local Government and a private developer, to build houses on floating platforms. Floating Concepts, a Manchester-based company promoting such developments, this month installed its first “show boat” in Coburg Dock, Liverpool, north-west England, ahead of a planned scheme, and is seeking a 150-year lease on 4.5 acres of Salford Quays, Manchester, on which to build a modular houseboat-style, mixed-use scheme. Floating homes are similarly under consideration as part of plans by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority.

“Floating homes or houseboats seem a much better use of redundant docklands than filling them in and building on them,” argues David Beard, Floating Concepts’ chief executive. “It is still a radical idea to some. It’s building on water. You just need a different kind of foundation.”

Houseboats of the kind designed by pioneering Copenhagen-based company Waterliving have high insulation standards, are constructed of largely recyclable materials and have waste water treatment systems that make them independent of land-based facilities. Solar panels, accumulation tanks and a specially developed geothermal heat pump – taking its heat from the water rather than land – create the potential for a zero energy house. The cost of heating and electricity for the vessels currently amounts to about £100 a year. Add in the fact that houseboat values are appreciating and investing in one looks like a sound financial move.

Rex Walden, chairman of the UK’s Residential Boat Owners’ Association, stresses that houseboats can now be outfitted to specifications that would compete with any modern show home in everything but space. A new generation of purpose-built residential boats is “ideal for those who want a city apartment but can’t afford it,” he suggests. “Living on the water is a lifestyle choice. You have barristers, road menders and everyone in between living in a community in a way that would never happen with bricks and mortar: there’s the camaraderie of the canal, as it were. But then, nor should anyone planning to live on a boat have unrealistic expectations. The media tends not to show narrowboat life when it’s raining or when the toilet [tank] has to be emptied or when the water supply needs fixing. I know people who have commissioned a boat, had it built, discovered the reality and put it on the market within months.”

Life afloat is certainly not without its complications. Chief among these in the UK is the shortage of residential moorings – in effect the rental of the land against which the houseboat is tied. British Waterways is to attempt to alleviate the situation through talks with the Department of Communities and Local Government.

“There is now a significant demand for residential moorings, both because there are more people who want to live on the water and because of their role in tackling the larger issue of housing provision,” Bailey explains. An estimated 11,000 new berths on inland waterways will be needed in the next decade to keep up with demand from private homebuyers alone. And shortage of moorings is an issue internationally. “Placement is the do or die of the houseboat market,” says Niels Holck, founder of Waterliving, who notes that there are now 2,500 people in Copenhagen waiting for moorings.

“There are lots of conflicting interests. But in our experience it just takes one project to start up – a small community of houseboats, with utilities and parking – for councils to realise that it can work.”

There are signs of progress. When Holck launched Waterliving in 2001 the lack of legislation, both in relation to planning and the technical specifications of the properties, proved so obstructive that he prepared his own paper with building standards. These, after some lobbying, have since been adopted in law. That has not only given buyers the security they want – Waterliving only sells its houseboats together with long-term mooring rights – but allowed the company to take the lead in a fledgling industry. Waterliving has recently signed big orders for houseboats to Germany and Holland, “so we’re selling sand to the Sahara now,” jokes Holck.

“The lack of standards is the reason for houseboat development having had something of a Klondike image,” he adds. “There have been interesting conversions and one-off designs in other places but high-end houseboats produced to a recognised standard is a new idea targeting a market that has to be developed. And it is creating that market. Convincing the public of the potential of houseboats has been an ongoing process. Some people are still surprised that the light switch works, or that the underfloor heating works. But word is spreading.”

Holck believes that the next important step, to be implemented in the coming five years, is production-line assembly of houseboats, in order to drive prices down and democratise access. He notes that, in the current economic climate, orders for his €200,000, 75 sq metre models are considerably more buoyant than those for the €500,000, 160 sq metre “penthouse” styles.

These latter styles, of course, have all the greater wow factor for being on the water. Perhaps this is why, while the authorities in Dubai will not yet allow a permanent residence in a houseboat, they are using the floating home design by Belgian interior designer Leen Vandaele as part of their rebranding activities for The World, their gargantuan artificial island project.

Created in 2003, the 280 sq metre, glass-walled prototype has subsequently become popular for event hire. With its spartan all-white interior, streamlined fixtures and remote-control steering, this is about as far from preconceptions of cramped, inconvenient living on water as you can get. Vandaele is now looking for backers to develop the concept for retail, as office space and as a hotel suite.

“It seemed fitting to launch it in Dubai because it’s so accepting of crazy architectural ideas,” Vandaele says. “The notion of a houseboat is not a new one, of course. It’s traditional to the likes of Holland or India and goes back centuries. But the look of this concept is so far from the traditional, it tends to give those who see it a fresh perspective on just what is possible with living on the water now.”

Visit the original article here. 

Imagine what it would be like to look out to the horizon, knowing that nature is stretching out as far as the eye can see. Or consider the possibilities if wildlife intermingled with our daily lives in bustling towns and cities, giving us the chance to relax in green fields or enjoy clouds of butterflies in the garden.

And what if nature can help us to be healthier, protect our homes from flooding and soak up carbon dioxide, helping to combat climate change?

Maybe it sounds too idyllic, but the wildlife trusts are thinking big. They believe that, within the next 30 years, there will be places in the UK and in Oxfordshire that not only match this description, but surpass it. And ‘landscape-scale conservation’ is the key.

Our wildlife is declining and it now faces its biggest threat — climate change. Detailed forecasts of how climate change may affect the UK during this century have recently been released by the Government.

The report shows that scientists believe winters will be wetter and summers drier, especially in the south.

Nature conservation in Britain traditionally focused on the protection of special sites, often home to rare creatures. But this means wildlife is becoming isolated into small pockets of habitat, making it vulnerable as the climate changes and development encroaches on the countryside.

From Oxfordshire butterflies hit hard by recent heavy summer rains, to building works threatening ground-nesting birds in Berkshire, across our region wildlife needs help — it needs a new solution.

Nigel Phillips, head of landscape projects at Berks Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust, said: “Working on a landscape scale, conservation can reconnect small and isolated fragments of wildlife together through a network of habitats.

“It includes everything from small gardens in towns, to managed nature reserves; wildlife-friendly farmland, to wild churchyards.

“These places become stepping stones which allow wildlife to move freely around the countryside.

“Restoring the landscape as a whole also increases the ability of the environment to function naturally, ensuring, for example, that floodplains soak up flood water, and woodlands store carbon for decades to come.

“It provides people with places that are beautiful, accessible, and full of opportunities to learn and recharge their batteries.

“We really want these areas to become ‘living landscapes’ — places that are alive with wildlife and loved by local people.”

Working on a landscape scale means thinking about areas outside those that are already specially protected.

It requires working with local landowners and the public to provide the means by which wildlife can survive across the countryside.

From wildlife gardening at home, to a farmer making a stream water vole-friendly, the opportunities are immense and everyone can lend a hand.

Chimney Meadows Nature Reserve, near Bampton, pictured below, is one of BBOWT’s Living Landscape schemes, and one of more than 100 similar schemes run by local wildlife trusts across the UK.

Chimney Meadows is BBOWT’s largest reserve and consists of wildlife-rich floodplain grassland along the banks of the River Thames. It includes a National Nature Reserve renowned for its diverse and often rare plants, such as adder’s tongue fern, snake’s-head fritillary and green-winged orchid. Alongside the vibrant flowers, rare birds and mammals, including skylark and brown hare, bring the meadows alive.

Chimney boasts a range of wetland habitats including meadows, wet woodland, ponds and waterways.

Locally rare species such as reed bunting, sedge warbler, and water rail take shelter in the thick reedbeds, whilst curlew breed in the open meadows, and pintail, lapwing and teal over-winter here.

Yellow irises and marsh marigolds grow along the waterways and rare insects like the club-tailed dragonfly dart about.

Mr Phillips said: “BBOWT’s vision extends further than the boundaries of our own land; we are developing a living landscape here. “The restoration of floodplain meadows next to the River Thames is a major ambition of this scheme.

“With new meadows, there would be opportunities to work towards some flood alleviation for local urban areas.

“All this could combine to create a dramatically large wetland area of huge benefit for wildlife and provide great pleasure to visitors.”

One humble creature that has already benefited from work on a landscape scale at Chimney is the tree sparrow. Once a common bird of the countryside, it has sadly gone the way of many of our songbirds and is now in severe decline due to changing agricultural practices depleting winter food supplies.

But there is hope on the horizon for this little bird. In collaboration with Oxford Ornithological Society (OOS), volunteers at Chimney Meadows have made and put up nest boxes around the site.

All in all, 210 boxes have been sited along the River Thames and feeding stations have been established by OOS volunteers, encouraging the tree sparrow to make a comeback across the whole landscape.

Although still in its first year, the project has, so far, been a great success.

Kerry Lock, Chimney Meadows project officer, said: “The volunteers have been so dedicated to this project, going out in all weathers to make sure feeding stations are topped up and bird activity is recorded.

“The result of this hard work is that tree sparrows have returned to breed this year at Chimney, and we’re even hoping that they might manage a second brood!

“It really does show that wildlife can recover and that working in partnership across a wide area can make a difference for even the smallest of creatures.”

Find out more at www.bbowt.org.uk

View the original article.

A local company has completed the building of a ‘floating house' which will be moored near Venice to offer top quality accommodation on a timeshare basis.

The building of the €500,000 boat by General Maintenance Ltd, is part of a Venice on Water project which envisages a fleet of 10 such ‘floating houses' which may all be built in Malta over a number of years.

The project is being handled by Malta-based Marketing And Promotion (MAP) Ltd, a holiday property marketing company and Italian partner Floating House.

Apart from offering an innovative and easy way of cruising on the most famous lagoon in Europe, these houseboats will also enable residents to enjoy a luxurious boating lifestyle without needing to find the capital, maintenance and management costs to support full-time boat ownership, guests were told at the launch of the project today.

The launch took place at the marina of the Grand Hotel Excelsior, where the first boat, called Mdina Venezia, was displayed.

The houseboat measures 10 by four and a half metres and can accommodate up to six guests.

MAP Managing Director Mary Anne Pulé said the boat was easy to manoeuvre and handle with no licence or experience was required.

The hull was fabricated from light aluminium ans specifically designed for the shallow waters of the Venetian Lagoon. The inside layout consists of two bedrooms, one with ensuite facilities, a separate shower room, a full kitchen and living area, a rooftop sundeck and lounge area, a cockpit and private sleeping area for the skipper.

View the original article.

PureSilica's Self-Elevating Six-Sided Pyramid Passive House with AFDES (Automated Flood Defence Elevation System) enables homes to be built on flood plains or coastal areas without fear or trepidation.

Not only do the houses automatically raise clear of flood water but according to the designer, they meet and surpass the UK Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6. The standard to which it is hoped all new homes will be designed and constructed in the UK from 2016.

Continues:

It has taken Christopher James, described as an unusual combination of artist, architect and engineer, the best part of thirty years of continually swimming against the conventional tide to bring his concept to fruition. During which time he has been commissioned by some of the UK's wealthiest individuals.

Puresilica was established by Christopher in 2002 to create iconic Architecture that avoided what he described as ‘brutal design’:

He eulogizes that ‘there is nothing more beautiful than the female form, yet their soft subcutaneous tissue is for ever being bruised by sharp aggressive and unyielding everyday objects.’

This philosophy continues to resonate throughout his work.

Christopher insists that his Six Sided Pyramid Glass Pavilions are not house-boats.

Despite their size and weight, in areas at risk of flooding they can be triggered to elevate automatically to a height in excess of 7ft/2m to clear rising flood water. Once the water has receded they automatically lower back to their original position, unscathed by what could otherwise have destroyed traditional buildings.

As the water rises or recedes the building will rise and fall accordingly.

Although depicted in the in a woodland setting, the design lends itself to virtually any environment including 'urban' with the appropriate choice of materials.

The Pyramide du Louvre, which sits at the center of the Louvre's plaza in Paris is an excellent example of how the simplicity and modernity of a glass Pyramid compliments, not detracts from the surrounding ornate urban architecture.

Inspired by the proportions of the Great Pyramids of Giza, Mies van der Rohe’s German Pavilion, Philip Johnson's 1949 Glasshouse and the 20th century architect Le Corbusier's mantra of; 'soleil, espace, venture' (Sun, light and greenery), Christopher individually designs and builds his inspirational homes exclusively for an enlightened and adventurous clientele.

His designs are predominantly encapsulated in outer glazing of IQ-Glass, a revolutionary new triple glazing system, which has an internal radiant heating layer and built-in sealed reflective solar blinds. Additionally there is a second inner layer of triple glazing leaving a circa 4ft/1200mm wide enclosed internal space surrounding the whole of the building for crop and/or plant cultivation. This space allows for the natural regulation of internal temperatures deploying a technique very similar to that deployed by Foster and Partners in the ‘Swiss re Tower’ in London

Another striking feature of Christopher’s designs are the hollow curved interior walls of bleached white ash incorporating PCM (phase change material) which together with the floor slabs provide the building with the necessary mass to enable natural temperature regulation.

He claims that the curved wall surfaces entice you to touch. He eulogises that one simply cannot resist caressing them with your finger tips.

He also claims that apart from cleaning, his designs are completely maintenance free.

Christopher’s unique designs are available in sizes of circa 250sq. ft. (23m2) to over 5000sq. ft (500m2) as sumptuous retirement homes, ground floor extensions, holiday villas, granny accommodation or lavish exciting and fulfilling family homes.

As a result of the unique sophisticated engineering, they can be erected on virtually any terrain, anywhere in the world on simple helical or concrete piles without disturbing existing protected trees or environments in as little as two weeks.

Do not be fooled into thinking however, that they are in any way insubstantial. They are enormous feats of quite meticulous engineering, taking over six months to manufacture in the factory, with a life expectancy well in excess of most modern-day traditionally built homes.

He says we should think of them more as the hand-made, Bentleys or Aston Martins of homes.

He believes his homes afford a quality of workmanship and sensitive attention to detail, hitherto only seen in ultra luxury hotels and superyatchts costing many millions.

He describes his designs as a hybrid, with the cosiness of the sitting room of a comfortable country house or cottage, set within the purity of a Mies Van der Rohe style glass pavilion.

Just over 12 years ago Christopher developed his own unique computerised surveying and full size parametric modelling solutions. This enables every minute item to be built, tested and pre-assembled in the controlled environment of the workshop/factory; safe in the knowledge that once on site, every component will fit with the guaranteed precision of less than the thickness of a single sheet of paper.

Puresilica is based at Oak Wood Lodge, a modernised stone Gothic gate lodge; set in 2.4 acres of beautiful mature oak woodland in West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom.

To see more of Christopher’s inspirational work go to http://www.puresilica.com.

View the original article.

He's embarrassed that the project has taken 2-½ years, with at least two more months of work left.

But one could reasonably ask why Jack Daniels, 43, a Seattle architect, never gave up on this time-consuming, money-gobbling, emotionally draining undertaking.

Daniels is building a rather astounding houseboat.

It is a high-tech, two-level, 45- by 15-foot, 33,400-pound, steel-framed, floating home. He's done everything himself — the design, welding, electrical work, plumbing and woodwork — at a Duwamish River boat yard.

Daniels has worked on the houseboat during freezing rains, and he has worked on it when he had to lug 30-foot steel decking by himself.

He's been there alone when he was off by half an inch on holes he drilled in steel panels and had to redo the work. Says Daniels: "I've cried, I've shouted at the wind."

Friends have wondered why he didn't call it quits a long time ago.

"There was an element of pride," Daniels says. "It's like you start climbing a mountain and you only make it halfway. I wanted to finish."

And he always could look at the computer renderings he had of the completed houseboat for inspiration.

"Imagine a party here, on a sunny day on Lake Washington," Daniels says.

It really would be quite a setting.

The lower level is mostly one large room, with nearly floor-to-ceiling windows made possible by the steel-frame construction.

But there is the universe of what a project looks like as a computer rendering, and then there is the universe of actually making those renderings come to life.

"Worker bee"

There is a reason the houseboat is named the "Sandra D."

Sandy Daniels is his wife of nearly six years.

She works in financial-software sales, and she has been the one bringing in the steady paycheck the past 2-½ years. Supplies to build the houseboat have run to nearly $200,000, and the couple have had to refinance their home.

Sandy didn't mind supporting the family, which now includes a son, Thomas, nearly 1, while Jack pursued his dream.

"I'm a happy little worker bee," she says. "I like Jack's adventurous spirit. He sweeps me with excitement."

Why did he decide to build a houseboat by himself?

Well, he and Sandy had gone to Lake Union and Portage Bay and wandered among the houseboats moored there. The more he thought about buying a houseboat, the more he concluded he could build a much better one himself.

A houseboat that wouldn't have the cramped feeling found in so many. A houseboat with a full-size bathroom and a full-size shower. One with a big closet. And a big kitchen with a stainless steel-topped island and a full-size gas range. And radiant floor heating.

"It was an architectural experiment free of constraints. I was building it for myself, rather than a client. I could do exactly what I wanted. I couldn't resist," he says.

Help from friends

There have been times when friends have come down to help.

Mostly, though, Daniels' companionship at the yard has been the National Public Radio jazz station KPLU-FM, and his Australian cattle dog, Gaucho, the latter also part of that species called "construction dogs" that give silent support while watching their owners perform some unwieldy task.

Daniels had 54 people on an e-mail list in which he gave periodic updates, and poured out his emotions:

" ... will it tip over ... will it leak ... will I have to redrill 400 holes ... am I just plain missing something that is gonna crush the idea later, it's too damn big and expensive ... what happened to that quick/fun experimental project ... I don't wanna weld no more! why, why, why ... "

Daniels and his wife initially thought they would live on the houseboat. That was before the baby come along.

Now he wants to sell it.

What is a houseboat like that worth? Maybe in the high $300,000s? Who knows? Will he have done the work for basically minimum wage?

And where would it be moored?

Daniels has no specific dock space lined up in Lake Union or Portage Bay, and such moorage is scarce. He started the project after making phone calls about moorage space, and concluded then that space would be available.

"It looks beautiful," says Melissa Ahlers, community-relations chair for the Seattle Floating Homes Association, after looking at photos of the Sandra D.

But, she says, it is a big houseboat, "and there will be a very limited amount of spaces that would fit it."

Daniels says he'd never have started the houseboat, had he known what he knows now.

Still ...

"It'd be a shame not to use all of the experience I've gained," he says about building another houseboat. "For sure, somewhere in the back of my mind, I think about it.

"But this time, I wouldn't build one outside because of the weather.

"And I wouldn't do it alone. I thought I was someone who could work in solitude. I need someone to talk to. Gaucho helped, but he's not much for running to the hardware store."

View the original article.

The precariously moored West Antarctic ice sheet probably won't collapse into the ocean all in one go as the climate warms. But the bad news, says a researcher, is that the sections most likely to be released into the ocean would raise sea levels globally by 3.3 metres – and rather more on the shores of North America.

The West Antarctic ice sheet, the smaller of the icy continent's two giant slabs of ancient ice, is moored to an archipelago of islands, many of them below sea level. It is held in place by floating ice shelves. Glaciologists had feared that warm water could melt the shelves, releasing the entire sheet into the ocean, raising sea levels by up to 5 metres.

Concern has increased with recent failures of floating Antarctic ice, such as the Wilkins shelf. A recent study (pdf format) found that the West Antarctic ice sheet would likely collapse if sea temperatures rose by more than 5 °Celsius.

But now Jonathan Bamber at Bristol University, UK, has analysed which parts of the West Antarctic ice sheet are vulnerable. He concludes that a third might stay put, mostly because it is moored above sea level. "The area's potential contribution to sea level has been greatly overestimated," he says.

Gravitational shift

Unfortunately, however, the loss of Antarctic ice would shift the Earth's gravitational pull, causing water to pile up in the northern hemisphere. Around North America this could increase anticipated sea-level rise by about a quarter.

In March, Bamber argued that the other giant ice sheet vulnerable to global warming, the Greenland ice sheet, is also more resistant to temperature rise that experts had thought.

But not all glaciologists think it has significantly changed the planet's immediate prognosis.

"The crucial question is how much ice could be lost in the next 100 to 200 years, and Jonathan's work has not really changed that," says David Vaughan of the British Antarctic Survey. Most predictions, he says, put global sea-level rise in the coming century at around 1 metre – but more will follow.

View the original article.