Details
1-day course
CPD Credit: 7 hours, C1/C2
Course
Overview
The challenge of
flooding is as important now as it has ever been with the advent of a changing
climate. The “old ways” of managing flooding are of limited value into the
future. When we look at the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive
together, we can conclude that for a rivers’ health, it must be allowed to
flood but in a predictable fashion. This new reality is causing Local
Authorities to examine flooding and Land Use Planning in a new way.
If flooding in some
shape or form is going to stay with us, some land should not be developed for
particular uses in urban and rural areas. The old ways of confining water to
the channel through the adoption of riverbank flood defences was promoted at a time
when the predicted sea level rises and other climate change impacts could not
have been foreseen. While these approaches are beneficial to certain
communities in distinct sections of river catchments, there is a risk that in
limiting our approach to flood risk to these types of interventions the health
of our rivers could be permanently undermined, particularly with the advent of
climate change.
When homes and
businesses are destroyed by flooding, sometimes repeatedly, it calls in to
question our approach and understanding of the cause, effect, and societies
response. Increasingly frequent flood events provide a stark reminder that it
is not possible to fight nature. We can try, but we won’t dominate it. However,
it also provides future opportunities such as ecotourism and urban renewal.
This is an exciting
multidisciplinary topic which encompasses; flooding, river restoration,
ecosystem services, tourism, land management and Integrated Catchment
Management.
The challenge of
flooding requires a broad range of supports for and measure to protect urban
and rural areas, although our responses to these distinct communities are
different. However, effective flood risk management can not be perceived to pit
one community against another.
This requires a
holistic plan of incentives and reassurances. The multi-organisational approach
to flooding and water management is a consequence of the broad range of
legislation that exists around the management of water - floods directive,
water framework directive, legislation around wastewater discharge and water
supply, ecology and the environment. Nonetheless, we have demonstrated that our
obligations under these pieces of legislation can still be achieved within our
existing governance structures.
Course Aim
It is a widely held
view that for sustainable stormwater management to become a reality, there
needs to be consistent policies throughout river catchments, and not based on
local or regional political boundaries.
Over the past
decade, trainer John Paul Rooney has been working with local authorities and
others throughout Ireland, guided by our understanding of our obligations under
the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive to help develop
sustainable land use plans and policies as well as leading the retrofit of
nature-based solutions from feasibility through to construction stage.
The approach that
has been adopted is informed, in part, by the research undertaken for the
Confederation of European Directorate's of Roads (CEDR) and research in
examining the “barriers to the adoption of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS)
in Dublin”.
If sustainable
stormwater management is to become a reality, we must examine surface water
management planning in parallel with land use planning. The trick here, is to
break up the river into reaches and plan each reach separately. This means in
simple terms, allowing certain parts of our river systems on flood plains to
flood naturally, but in a predictable way.
This requires and
open and honest exchange of information from communities at risk of flooding
and with water authorities. Our experience has taught us that in doing so, we
can have some confidence that holistic flood risk management proposals can be
readily accepted and understood by local communities. This is the cornerstone
of Integrated Catchment Management – an approach which adopted with the aim of
creating safe, attractive and vibrant communities.
Course Objectives
The course focuses
on the methodology developed to aid in the delineation of floodplain boundaries
using morphological features to identify functional riparian zones - the end
goal being to provide the basis for sustainable zoning policies that provide “room
for the river” which in time allow river systems to return to a state of
equilibrium with rich biodiversity, developed ecosystem service provision and
resilience to future shocks such as climate change. Doing this will aid in
meeting our objectives under the Water Framework and Floods Directives.
The many benefits
of delineating riparian lands are discussed and as well as the process for
establishing the preferred assessment methodologies.
Those attending
this course will also gain an understanding of:
• Catchment
pressures and impacts,
• The
importance of Water quality and the role of Nature-based Solutions within and
outside river corridors - based around local needs and local pressures,
• Ecology and
Biodiversity - biodiversity action plans and wider green infrastructure
strategies,
• The
considerations for establishing appropriate locations for Public Access and
Amenity,
• the
compatibility and conflicts between the key drivers of Sustainable Stormwater
Management
While some of these
drivers of sustainable stormwater management are compatible, others some are
not. This brings us to the logical conclusion that some areas can and should be
developed while other areas could be developed at some point in the future and
some not at all. Climate change is forcing us to think differently, and to make
some difficult decisions.
Who should attend
Engineers,
architects, landscape architects, planners, ecologists, environmental
scientists and all practitioners involved in land use planning and applications
design development for all infrastructure and building projects.
Other courses in
this series
Upcoming courses
will include:
- "SuDS Retrofit
in Ireland" – real case-study examples of the retrofitting of nature-based
solutions in urban environments with ‘lessons learned’ along the way.
- "How to
overcome the main barriers to the Adoption of SuDS" – governance,
legislation and organisational capacity.
Trainer Profile
John Paul Rooney,
Roughan & O'Donovan
John Paul is a
spokesperson for Engineers Ireland on sustainable surface water management and
flooding and has acted as the expert witness for State Agencies at Arbitrations
and Oral Hearing. As an Associate with ROD, John Paul leads the company’s water
engineering team. He has 20 years’ experience in the design, construction
and management of civil and structural engineering projects including; flood
alleviation schemes, catchment pressure assessments under the WFD, sustainable
stormwater management plans for public and private sector clients, greenways,
road schemes, residential, education and commercial building projects, water
supply and wastewater infrastructure. In 2015, he was awarded a
Postgraduate Research Masters (Level 9) at Trinity College Dublin having
examined “Barriers and Solutions to the Implementation of Sustainable Drainage
Systems in Dublin”. The work undertaken by ROD, led by John Paul, to
deliver the M11/Crinken Catchment Flood Defence Scheme featured in the Summer
2016 edition of the Public Works Magazine. He has provided training to Local
Authorities and regularly presents at universities and national &
international seminars to highlight current best practice for better management
of; urban stormwater runoff, flood risk management and how ‘green
infrastructure’ initiatives can help to overcome some of the challenges, and
compliment some of the lesser publicised opportunities faced by Climate Change.
In January 2018, he was invited by Engineers Ireland to join the “State of Ireland
Flood Advisory Group” in recognition of his expertise in the field of flood
risk management and sustainable stormwater practice in Ireland. John Paul is
regularly invited to present at National conferences to highlight the
innovative policies to deliver Strategic Flood Risk Assessments and Sustainable
Stormwater Management Plans, which address the challenges and opportunities we
face in achieving our obligations under the Floods Directive and Water
Framework Directive and how climate change is now driving a unified approach to
flood risk management, river restoration and the water framework agenda. John
Paul is currently addressing these challenges based on the identification and
assessment of the specific co-benefits and synergies that exist at a catchment scale.
Engineers Ireland supports the Sustainable Development Goals. This event contributes to Engineers Ireland's Sustainability Framework.
Please contact the Team for further information on scheduled course dates and In-Company options. You can reach us by phone: 01 665 1305 or email cpdtraining@engineersireland.ie