A new innovative groundwater flooding project has come to Lambourn

The Lambourn Valley has experienced flooding in the past due to a number of reasons including high groundwater which is when the water table rises, the chalk springs start to gush and water appears on the surface.

In the Chiltern Hills and Berkshire Downs, almost 200 communities and 70,000 properties are at risk of groundwater flooding. Due to groundwater flooding typically affecting small rural communities, it can be hard for people to support one another. It also means that groundwater flooding often fails to qualify for flood management funding.

However, Project Groundwater is now working across the Chiltern Hills and Berkshire Downs to support nine at-risk communities to be prepared for groundwater flooding. It is led by Buckinghamshire Council as part of Defra’s £150 million Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme, managed by the Environment Agency, which aims to test innovative and practical actions to increase our resilience and ability to adapt to climate change.

The Lambourn Valley has been chosen as one of the communities that will be supported by Project Groundwater.

Project Groundwater aims to increase resilience to groundwater flooding in 9 communities that are at risk. New approaches we are testing include:

• improving monitoring of when and where groundwater emerges
• improving awareness of groundwater flooding
• developing a better flood alert system for groundwater flooding

Community collaboration is essential to achieving these aims and a central value of Project Groundwater. As such, we would appreciate hearing from you about your knowledge and experiences of groundwater flooding, as well as your concern about flooding locally.

Fill out our community survey here: www.projectgroundwater.co.uk/CommunityReadinessSurvey

Your input will help plan future collaborative work with your community, helping to build understanding and awareness, and mitigate local groundwater flood risk. The survey closes 3rd March.

For updates on the project and the survey, you can follow us on:

Facebook – @Projectgroundwater

Twitter – @ProjGroundwater

LinkedIn – Project Groundwater