From Building Design:

British cities near the coast are at risk of extreme flooding with urgent action needed now to protect them, the RIBA and the Institution of Civil Engineers have claimed.

A new report by the two organisations urges the government, built environment professionals, planning authorities and the public to focus on devising radical solutions including the building of flood defenses or floating or stilted buildings.

The report, called Facing up to Rising Sea Levels: Retreat, Defend, Attack?, focuses on Kingston upon Hull and Portsmouth and presents six scenarios up to 90 years in the future, proposing three main approaches to tacking extreme flooding – retreat, defend or attack. (more…)

Houses on stilts, floating communities and returning urban areas to saltmarsh should all be considered as part of radical approaches to tackling the threat posed to coastal cities by flooding, a report suggested today.

The study by the Royal Institute of British Architects’ think tank Building Futures and the Institution of Civil Engineers warned that the UK’s 12,000km (7,500 miles) of coastline would be increasingly at risk of floods.

Rising sea levels, sinking landmass in the south and increased storminess will all put coastal towns and cities at risk, and planners will need to decide how to tackle the threat.

At-risk areas could cope with the risk of flooding by retreating inland and allowing water to flood parts of the city, defending urban sites in innovative ways or “attacking” the problem, for example by building out into the water. (more…)