Planning for increased resilience.

We are now several weeks into our recovery work after the floods. We have completed the first phase where we responded as quickly as possible to any dangerous situations and also restored access as far as possible. Now we are into the second phase where we will spend some time considering appropriate actions to increase resilience.

After previous flooding events, we were under some pressure to put everything back exactly as it had been. Having in mind that these disruptive flooding events might recur more often than we once expected, this time we are going to consider what changes we might make to minimise future damage.

We are starting this by looking at how we can manage the water-catchment area as a whole. As part of this I’ve been out with a Trust water advisor, John Malley, in the Force Crag Mine and Coledale area. There have been several landslips in the valley and there is a lot of material above the mine that will come down eventually. We have been discussing how we can ensure that it does as little damage as possible to the mine site when it finally does shift dramatically.

We are also going to move some lake-shore fencing that was destroyed up to a higher level. This will give more space for fencing and footpaths that will be less vulnerable in future.

Hopefully, part of the good that will come out of the floods will be that we go into the future with a more robust, more resilient landscape.

Daisy here: It’s been snowing. Life’s great.