Study plan
Flood Risk Management in Cumbria: From Extreme Events to Adaptive Schemes
Critically understand the hydrometeorology and impacts of the 2005 and 2015 Cumbria floods, non-stationary flood frequency analysis, 2D hydrodynamic flood modelling and the design of the Kendal Flood Risk Management Scheme, and evaluate integrated flood risk management and resilience.
Lessons in this plan
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1
The January 2005 Cumbria Floods: Meteorology and Hydrology
Explain the meteorological mechanisms (warm moist airflow, orographic seeder-feeder enhancement, sting jet), rainfall rarity and river flows of the January 2005 event. Interpret return periods and runoff ratios, and evaluate hydrometric data limitations (tipping-bucket under-reading, radar quality, rating curves at extreme flows).
- 2 Impacts, Warning and Forecasting in 2005: Lessons for Flood Risk Management Analyse the property, infrastructure, economic and social impacts of the 2005 floods. Assess the performance of flood warnings and of trigger, correlation, transfer function and ISIS real-time forecasting models, and summarise the FRM improvements made in Cumbria after 2005.
- 3 Storm Desmond 2015: Records, Impacts and Resilience Describe the hydrometeorology and record rainfall and flows of Storm Desmond, compare them with 2005, and evaluate defence performance, losses, insurance (Flood Re), institutional roles and the 5C-4R resilience framework and key PERC insights.
- 4 Non-Stationary Flood Frequency Analysis in the UK Explain the stationarity debate, the trend tests and non-stationary GEV approach of Faulkner et al. (2020), interpret the national and North West results (including the Lune at Killington), and critically assess the recommendations and limitations for design flood estimation.
- 5 2D Hydrodynamic Modelling of Kendal with CityCAT Describe CityCAT's governing equations and numerical scheme, the model set-up for Storm Desmond in Kendal (DEM, inflows, roughness), and interpret validation using the Critical Success Index and depth comparisons, together with the model's limitations.
- 6 The Kendal Flood Risk Management Scheme and Integrated FRM Describe the three phases of the Kendal FRMS (linear defences, pumping station, upstream storage at Kentmere and Kentrigg, Stock Beck drain). Evaluate the scheme's costs, benefits and phasing risks using evidence from the CityCAT study, and link it to non-stationarity and resilience.