Flooding in Asia.

Rivers are changing all the time, and it affects their capacity to contain floods

The rainfall that has inundated the North of England is the latest in a long line of flood events that are becoming the country’s new normal.

Indeed, across the world, flooding is expected to become more frequent and more extreme as the planet heats up.

Building robust flood defences and modelling vulnerable areas is crucial if we are to avoid loss of life and livelihoods from these devastating weather events.

But our new research reveals that the capacity of rivers to keep water flowing within their banks can change quickly – and in failing to acknowledge this, some flood models and defences may be under-equipped to deal with the consequences when they do.

Professor Rob Wilby and Research Associate Abdou Khouakhi, both of Loughborough University's School of Social Sciences and Humanities, and Dr Louise Slater, of the University of Oxford and formerly of Loughborough University, discuss changing rivers in the Conversation. Read the full article here. 

Notes for editors

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