Why is groundwater flooding often referred to as "invisible flooding" or "forgotten flooding"?
There's plenty about groundwater flooding that makes it different from other forms of flooding. It's less predictable, less mapped, less measured and less headline-grabbing. But for the people and businesses affected by it, it can often be more trouble. How can you prepare for something you don't know is coming? How do you recover from a flood that takes way longer to recede than other types? And what about the mental health impacts of seeing the water level millimetres below your floorboards, or slowly rising from the sewers (bringing the contents with it)?
Groundwater flooding is tricky. Hard to grasp. And that's exactly why Project Groundwater was started - to begin to understand this type of flooding more so that it can be handled better. In this episode, Jed Ramsay - leader of Project Groundwater, and one of the UK's most knowledgeable groundwater flooding experts - joins host Katie Hargrave-Smith to reveal what we know... and what we don't know.
Plus, as always on Groundwater Rising, there is firsthand experience shared by a community member affected by groundwater flooding. Andy from Kimpton in Hertfordshire shares his story - how long-dry hillside springs suddenly started seeping water and how a "dead" river came back to life to threaten houses built on top of it, with even the council telling him the river he was was now bailing out of his neighbour's garden... simply "didn't exist".
Have a story you’d like to share on Groundwater Rising?
Email groundwaterrising@projectgroundwater.co.uk
To find out more about Project Groundwater, visit projectgroundwater.co.uk
Want to watch this episode on YouTube? Go to www.youtube.com/@GroundwaterRising
