What Damage Can Surface Water Flooding Cause?
15/04/2024
Surface water, also known as rainwater, stormwater, or runoff, is channelled through roof gutters, downspouts, and road gullies into surface water drainage systems. This usually runs into the nearest watercourse.
Surface water (from rain or melted snow and ice) will also seep into soft land such as grass and soil. But increasing urbanisation (covering land with impervious materials, such as concrete, tarmac, etc) has reduced the surface area available to absorb rainfall. In extreme weather, land becomes saturated, and when heavy rainfall follows heavy rainfall, the water table remains high, leaving excess water with nowhere to go. The result, as we are seeing more and more often, is flooding.
In this article, we highlight the damage that surface water flooding can cause, as well as the importance of flood prevention and drain maintenance.
Discover what surface water drainage is and how to find out where your surface water drains in our article ‘How do I know where my surface water drains to?’.
Surface water damage to residential and non-residential properties
Flash floods and surface water flooding can damage homes, possessions, and cars, and put residents and pets at risk, as they may need to be rescued from rising waters.
The UK Government's National Assessment of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk in England 2024 (NaFRA) shows that around 6.3 million properties (homes and businesses) in England are in areas at risk of flooding from one or a combination of sources:
- Rivers
- The sea
- Surface water
It also stated that with climate change, properties in areas at high risk of flooding from surface water could increase to 1.8 million – a 66% increase between 2040 and 2060!
Surface water flooding also puts non-residential properties at risk, such as schools, hospitals, retail, and leisure businesses, disrupting entire communities.
Surface water damage to the road and railway network
Infrastructure such as road, rail, water, electricity and gas are all at risk of infrastructure damage and disruption to services caused by flooding, which is why it’s so important that plans are put in place to protect the infrastructure from flooding.
For the transport sector, we provide comprehensive drain, sewer and wastewater services that keep UK transport operations running efficiently. This includes pre-planned maintenance to make sure water can flow freely from gullies and drains, and emergency call-outs for essential repairs and drainage.
Surface water damage to agricultural land
Surface water flooding can cause damage to crops, ruin soil quality and even spread pollution onto farmland, which is why drainage services, such as the ones we offer at Lanes, are essential for helping businesses to prevent the risk of pollution and mitigate the impact of flooding, spills and extreme weather.
At Lanes, our jet vac tanker services can reach even the most remote areas, including agricultural land, to carry out necessary maintenance and emergency flood cleaning.
Discover how our off-road jet vac tankers are able to cope with boggy and unstable ground in the most remote of locations in our article ‘Nowhere off limits for the 8x8 off-road jet vac tanker’.
How Lanes can help with flood prevention
For more information on surface water flooding, our article ‘What is surface water and who is responsible for surface water drainage?’ provides valuable insights into:
- What you can do to help prevent surface water flooding
- What the government is doing about flooding
- Where your responsbility lies
- Legal policies and legislation
- Case studies showing how we can help you
If you’re looking for flood prevention, we can assist you with installing proactive control technology on your premises, including monitoring devices and specialist non-return valves for your drainage system.
Contact us today to enquire about our flood cleaning or planned maintenance services to help prevent damage caused by surface water flooding.
Anyone with responsibility for premises, land (hard or soft), should be interested in our downloadable guide, which includes insights into:
- What you can do to help prevent surface water flooding
- What the government is doing about flooding
- Where your responsibility lies
- Legal policies and legislation
- Case studies showing how we can help you
- An infographic showing the journey of clean water. (You can also download this separately.)
