Soils and Flooding Worskhop

Background

Flooding poses an increasing challenge across the UK, exacerbated by climate change and land management practices. Soils play a crucial but often overlooked role in flood resilience and water regulation.

Improved soil management can reduce surface runoff, enhance water retention, and minimise erosion, yet decision-makers often lack the necessary scientific insights to incorporate soil management considerations and nature-based solutions (NBS) into flood adaptation strategies.

This workshop focuses on the science and applied expert knowledge surrounding soils and flooding with our panel of experts:

• Prof. David Robinson, Soil Scientist, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
• Dr Richard Smith, Technical Specialist, Environment Agency
• Prof. John Boardman, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
• Dr Alejandro Dussaillant, Hydrology, Nature Based Solutions, UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology

Discussion points will include:

• How do soil type, soil properties and soil management influence susceptibility to flooding?
• What are the strategies (including nature-based solutions) that can help reduce or mitigate flooding and flood risk?
• In what areas could government help, in terms of policy or funding, and where might it look to do this most effectively?
• Are there policy or research gaps that need to be filled?
• How strong and/or useful are links between policymakers and private sector stakeholders – such as water companies etc. with respect to flood / flood risk?
• How do we build evidence to support investment in soil-based solutions?

There will guided discussion and a Q&A session, all of which will be captured in the output.

Outputs

The session will be recorded and presented on the LUNZ website together with a workshop report outlining the key findings, discussions, key questions, and next steps.