Search

Sewer flooding, urban surface water flooding and wet weather pollution are recognised as significant problems in the UK and elsewhere in the world, and changes in extreme rainfall arising as a consequence of climate change are likely to exacerbate these problems. This paper reports on new approaches to estimate potential future rainfall intensity changes over the UK at temporal and spatial scales that impact on urban drainage systems. The research (part of UK Water Industry Research's programme of climate change related projects) has produced estimates of rainfall intensity change over different parts of the UK using a climate analogue approach and a very high-resolution (1·5 km) climate model developed by the UK Met Office. The new estimates produced are, in general, higher than existing UK climate change allowances for rainfall intensity. Sewer flooding volumes, flooding frequency and frequency of pollution events are also investigated for one location; indicating that these incidents and flood volumes are also likely to increase in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change modelling has improved significantly in recent years and the impact of climate change on flooding in the UK and internationally has become an area of increased importance. Flooding in the UK occurs for a range of reasons; this paper examines some of the predicted changes related to rainfall processes. The different types of rainfall in the UK can be categorised into groups such as frontal, orographic and convective, and combinations of these. Notable flooding events in the UK in recent years have been caused by different types of rainfall; Boscastle in 2004 and the widespread autumn 2000 floods being examples of quite different rainfall processes. Predicting how different types of flood-producing rainfall will change in the future climate presents researchers with major challenges, including that of spatial scale and uncertainty in the predictions. This paper highlights some of these challenges and looks at areas where future research could be focused. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]