River Flooding

Question 1

Name the case study

Answer 1

• Boscastle

Question 2

What were the effects of river flooding in Boscastle?

Answer 2

• Homes, businesses and cars belonging to more than 1,000 people were washed away
• Income from tourism was lost

Question 3

What were the short term responses to the flooding in Boscastle?

Answer 3

• Major incident declared at 5pm.
• RAF search and resuce were alerted to rescue trapped people
• No one died mainly due to the rapid response of the emergency services

Question 4

What were the long term responses in Boscastle?

Answer 4

• To reduce the risk of future floods, a £4.6 million flood defence scheme was completed in 2008
• Low bridges removed
• Rive widened through Boscastle

Question 5

Study Figure 12 on the insert, a photograph of an information board describing flood managment in Boscastle, Cornwall

With the help of figure 12, explain how hard and soft engineering strategies help to manage the risk of flooding in areas such as Boscastle

Answer 5

• The hard engineering strategy is the River Bank being widened. In Boscastle, the river bank has been widened near the vistior centre and car park
• The soft engineering strategy used is flood plain zoning, which is land has different types of building depending on how far away from the river it is

Question 6

What does widening the river do?

Answer 6

• By widening the river the chance of flooding is less likely as the river will be able to hold a higher volume of water

Question 7

What is the reasoning for flood plain zoning being used in Boscastle?

Answer 7

• Car parks are next to the river so a low amount of damage would be caused if it flooded