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The power of nature in devastating force. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:06 | |
A month ago, communities across Scotland were hit by the worst | 0:00:06 | 0:00:09 | |
floods in living memory. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
Hello and a very warm welcome to a special edition of Landward. | 0:00:12 | 0:00:15 | |
We'll be exploring the effects of the flood and investigating | 0:00:15 | 0:00:19 | |
what can be done to reduce the risks of further flooding. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:22 | |
Deeside was one of the areas worst hit by the flood and here, | 0:00:41 | 0:00:45 | |
on Ballater's main street, you can | 0:00:45 | 0:00:46 | |
still see the evidence five weeks on. | 0:00:46 | 0:00:49 | |
Businesses, homes and farms were all ruined, | 0:00:49 | 0:00:52 | |
and later, we'll be meeting some of those affected. | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
Sarah visits the farmer who battled to save his sheep. | 0:00:55 | 0:00:59 | |
We'd 101 washed away and there's been nine turned up, | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
so 92, I'm afraid, have succumbed to the flood. | 0:01:02 | 0:01:06 | |
Also, Euan takes to the road to examine the dredging debate. | 0:01:06 | 0:01:10 | |
And I find out how harnessing nature can help prevent flooding. | 0:01:10 | 0:01:15 | |
First, here's a guide to how events unfolded. | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
For Scotland, the whole of 2015 was categorised by rain... | 0:01:25 | 0:01:30 | |
..lots and lots of rain. | 0:01:33 | 0:01:35 | |
We suffered a wash-out summer with parts of the country almost | 0:01:36 | 0:01:40 | |
twice as wet as normal. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:41 | |
In July, the torrential rain struck Alyth in Perthshire. | 0:01:46 | 0:01:49 | |
Cars were swept away and home | 0:01:52 | 0:01:54 | |
and business owners were left counting the cost of the downpour. | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
But it was the end of the year which brought | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
the start of the widespread misery. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:05 | |
December 2015 was the wettest month since UK records began. | 0:02:06 | 0:02:12 | |
Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders were hit first, | 0:02:12 | 0:02:15 | |
taking the brunt of Storm Desmond's fearsome power. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
The River Nith at Whitesands in Dumfries burst its banks. | 0:02:20 | 0:02:24 | |
And homes in Hawick were evacuated after the River Teviot | 0:02:24 | 0:02:28 | |
suffered a similar fate. | 0:02:28 | 0:02:29 | |
Then, four days after Christmas, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:35 | |
it was Storm Frank's turn to wreak havoc across the country. | 0:02:35 | 0:02:39 | |
In Aberdeenshire, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
part of A93 collapsed into the swollen River Dee. | 0:02:44 | 0:02:47 | |
In Newton Stewart, the Cree reached its highest level since 1963. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:54 | |
Viewer footage shows the consequences. | 0:02:54 | 0:02:56 | |
But the incident which probably sticks in most people's minds - | 0:03:01 | 0:03:05 | |
passengers had to be rescued from a bus in Dailly, South Ayrshire, | 0:03:05 | 0:03:09 | |
after it became trapped by the floods. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
And there's been no relief from the flooding misery in the New Year. | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
There were dramatic rescues in Port Elphinstone in Aberdeenshire. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:24 | |
And nearly three weeks later, | 0:03:24 | 0:03:25 | |
Hawick was evacuated again as rain continued to pound the Borders. | 0:03:25 | 0:03:30 | |
Across Scotland, people are counting the cost of the damage. | 0:03:32 | 0:03:35 | |
But it was perhaps Ballater on Deeside that was hit hardest. | 0:03:35 | 0:03:40 | |
Just a few days after the flood, Sarah visited the town. | 0:03:40 | 0:03:43 | |
On 30th December, Ballater was overwhelmed by flood water | 0:03:46 | 0:03:51 | |
when the River Dee burst its banks. | 0:03:51 | 0:03:53 | |
For many residents, | 0:04:00 | 0:04:01 | |
returning home to the aftermath has been a distressing experience. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:05 | |
So my shed - it was tipped up. | 0:04:08 | 0:04:10 | |
Everything inside, as you can see, has just been trashed. | 0:04:10 | 0:04:15 | |
-We've lost everything. Yeah. -We'll have a look inside the house? -Yeah. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:19 | |
Please. | 0:04:19 | 0:04:20 | |
Gordon Duff recently moved to the community to | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
enjoy his retirement and he's just finished renovating his new home. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:28 | |
-You can see from the water mark... -So the water was about waist high? | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
-Yeah. -And then, just everything inside was ruined? -Total. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:34 | |
Everything's gone. | 0:04:34 | 0:04:36 | |
This is a brand-new kitchen. It's just completely trashed. | 0:04:36 | 0:04:41 | |
-Completely trashed. -How are you feeling about this? | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
I'm absolutely devastated. | 0:04:44 | 0:04:46 | |
It's just all... | 0:04:50 | 0:04:51 | |
I'm heartbroken because 30 odd years of mementos, photographs | 0:04:51 | 0:04:54 | |
of the grandchildren and the boys growing up - it's all gone now. | 0:04:54 | 0:04:59 | |
Yeah. I know that... | 0:05:00 | 0:05:03 | |
They say it's only bricks and mortar, | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
we can put that right but, I mean, it was our home and it's just gone. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:09 | |
The floods hit the main street with remarkable speed, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
and a week later, shops and businesses are still devastated. | 0:05:18 | 0:05:22 | |
-John, morning. -Hello. -Sarah. How are you doing? -How are you? | 0:05:24 | 0:05:27 | |
-Are you mid clear-up? -Yes. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:29 | |
'John Sinclair has worked at the local butcher's for over | 0:05:29 | 0:05:32 | |
'three decades.' | 0:05:32 | 0:05:34 | |
How much damage was there? | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
Everything, total devastation throughout the shop. | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
There's nothing left at all. The walls have got to come down as well. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
I mean, the water level was up to there, that height, | 0:05:43 | 0:05:47 | |
on the day of it. | 0:05:47 | 0:05:48 | |
Have you calculated how much this has all cost? | 0:05:48 | 0:05:51 | |
-It's going to be well over 500,000. -£500,000? -I would say so, anyway. | 0:05:51 | 0:05:55 | |
They've got to refit the place. Even the stock... | 0:05:55 | 0:05:57 | |
£50,000 of stock I've binned. | 0:05:57 | 0:05:58 | |
-I'm just devastated. -And you're not alone cos, you know, | 0:06:01 | 0:06:03 | |
walking down the street is just a scene of devastation everywhere. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:06 | |
I mean, every business seems to have been affected. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:09 | |
Every business in the bottom half of the village is shut. | 0:06:09 | 0:06:11 | |
However, nowhere shows the destructive power of the flood | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
more clearly than the scene | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
at Ballater's community-run caravan park. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
I've never seen anything like this before. | 0:06:26 | 0:06:28 | |
This is what remains of Ballater Caravan Park which was | 0:06:28 | 0:06:33 | |
one of the busiest tourist sites in the village. | 0:06:33 | 0:06:35 | |
And last week, this whole area was under six feet of water. | 0:06:35 | 0:06:40 | |
Volunteer Gordon Bruce helps to manage the park. | 0:06:42 | 0:06:46 | |
How important was this caravan park to the village? | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
Oh, I think it was very important, brought a lot of tourists and | 0:06:49 | 0:06:54 | |
they spent money in the shops, the restaurants and whatever, you know. | 0:06:54 | 0:06:59 | |
-So it's a big loss for the village? -Well, I think it is, you know. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:02 | |
If it didn't open this next year, it's a disaster, really. | 0:07:02 | 0:07:05 | |
Are you optimistic about the future? | 0:07:05 | 0:07:07 | |
Do you see yourselves reopening fairly quickly? | 0:07:07 | 0:07:11 | |
Well, I think a little bit of help from Aberdeenshire Council and | 0:07:11 | 0:07:15 | |
we could at least get the touring side up and going again, you know. | 0:07:15 | 0:07:20 | |
We're in a good enough position but we couldn't | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
possibly afford to rebuild everything as it is just now. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:28 | |
It's just the whole structure of this site's been ruined. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:31 | |
The caravans of everyone's virtually ruined, 40 of them down the river. | 0:07:32 | 0:07:38 | |
-We've got 60 odd left. -Any of them salvageable? | 0:07:38 | 0:07:43 | |
Well, I think it's...one person said they had one, | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
but the rest have all been shifted. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:49 | |
I don't think any of them really will be. | 0:07:49 | 0:07:51 | |
It's just a total mess. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
-Do you have insurance? -No. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
They won't give you insurance in a flood plain. | 0:07:57 | 0:08:00 | |
Ballater wasn't alone in being hit. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:06 | |
All along the Dee, communities and farms were affected. | 0:08:06 | 0:08:10 | |
And normally, how far are you from the river? | 0:08:10 | 0:08:12 | |
-Well, you can just see it if you... -I can just see it. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:15 | |
'35 miles downstream, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:17 | |
'I met Jane McInnis to see the damage done to her deer farm.' | 0:08:17 | 0:08:21 | |
One fence lying on its back, completely destroyed. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
This fence was going along the river. | 0:08:25 | 0:08:27 | |
It's been completely moved, covered in debris. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
And also, all the banking has gone. | 0:08:30 | 0:08:34 | |
We knew it was coming in at the east end of the farm. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:36 | |
We didn't worry about this | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
because this has always held the river in his place. | 0:08:38 | 0:08:41 | |
But then suddenly, we realised it had started to breach the banks. | 0:08:41 | 0:08:46 | |
You know, you can see the water's subsided | 0:08:46 | 0:08:48 | |
-and just the damage it's left behind - this massive crater. -Yep. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
-And there's one over there as well. -That's right. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
The bank has just been totally eroded by the power of the water. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
We got the sheep off with less than half an hour to spare | 0:08:59 | 0:09:02 | |
and we got the deer into a holding pen. | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
But then, we stood up on the bank and watched, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
and it was just terrifying. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:08 | |
How does this flood compare to previous ones? | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
Oh, this is way ahead of the other floods in the damage it's done | 0:09:13 | 0:09:19 | |
and the speed with which it came through. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:21 | |
I think that was the most terrifying thing - it happened so fast. | 0:09:21 | 0:09:25 | |
And there was very little anybody could do. What can you do? | 0:09:25 | 0:09:27 | |
Got the animals off but it was... No, no. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:30 | |
This is something on a different scale, Sarah, totally. | 0:09:30 | 0:09:33 | |
And that's what worries me for the future of living near a river like this - | 0:09:33 | 0:09:37 | |
is this going to be something that is happening much more often? | 0:09:37 | 0:09:41 | |
-It really is Mother Nature in full force, isn't it? -Oh, absolutely. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
Absolutely. And there's not a thing we can do about it here. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:47 | |
While the storm has destroyed much of the farm, | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
Jane did not lose any livestock. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
Sheep farmer Rodney Blackhall was not so lucky. | 0:09:55 | 0:09:59 | |
Just tell us what happened to this field. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:04 | |
Well, it went from being a nice dry field, | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
and Wednesday 30th, December, there to an absolute raging torrent. | 0:10:07 | 0:10:14 | |
And the river rose about six metres | 0:10:14 | 0:10:16 | |
and there was full-sized trees taken through here. | 0:10:16 | 0:10:21 | |
Did you have livestock in the field? | 0:10:21 | 0:10:23 | |
We had sheep in that field that, unfortunately, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
weren't at the right side of this torrent. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
This footage shows Rodney and his friends | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
and family frantically trying to move the sheep to safety. | 0:10:33 | 0:10:38 | |
We'd 101 washed away and there's been nine turned up, | 0:10:38 | 0:10:43 | |
downstream, miraculously have survived being in the water. | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
-So 92, I'm afraid, have succumbed to the flood. -I mean, I know... | 0:10:47 | 0:10:52 | |
You know, farmers are dedicated to their livestock, to their flock. | 0:10:52 | 0:10:56 | |
I mean, how must that have felt? | 0:10:56 | 0:10:57 | |
Well, that's why we were in there, up to our waists, | 0:10:57 | 0:11:00 | |
beside the trees up there, trying to save them | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
because you spend all your time, from the time they're born, | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
trying to look after them and make the best of them, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:07 | |
and yeah, to see them going away, down the river, | 0:11:07 | 0:11:10 | |
was quite heartbreaking, to be honest. | 0:11:10 | 0:11:12 | |
A terrible thing for any farmer to have to deal with. | 0:11:12 | 0:11:15 | |
Yeah, well, it's quite a sickener | 0:11:15 | 0:11:17 | |
when you're sticking at lambing and hoping to get anything alive. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:21 | |
And you get them through to that stage | 0:11:22 | 0:11:25 | |
and then they're taken away from you like that. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
And what about the future? | 0:11:28 | 0:11:30 | |
Well, farmers tend to be that you've just to pick up the pieces | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
and get on, don't you? Otherwise, we would all be back down long by now. | 0:11:33 | 0:11:38 | |
So yeah, we'll do our best to just carry on. | 0:11:38 | 0:11:41 | |
The floods obviously caused serious and lasting consequences | 0:11:44 | 0:11:48 | |
for many people, but why did they happen and why so severe? | 0:11:48 | 0:11:52 | |
We sent Euan to Ellon in search of some answers. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
This is the River Ythan in Ellon. | 0:11:59 | 0:12:01 | |
Now, it doesn't look much at the moment. It's quite swollen. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:03 | |
But in January, this river burst its banks | 0:12:03 | 0:12:05 | |
and this whole area was under water. | 0:12:05 | 0:12:08 | |
And I'm with Richard Brown of | 0:12:08 | 0:12:09 | |
the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, SEPA. | 0:12:09 | 0:12:12 | |
And it's their job to monitor the water levels | 0:12:12 | 0:12:14 | |
and to issue flood warnings. | 0:12:14 | 0:12:16 | |
Now, Richard, I know Ellon wasn't alone in being hit by the deluge | 0:12:16 | 0:12:19 | |
but why so much rain? | 0:12:19 | 0:12:21 | |
Really, a series of very intense Atlantic storms, | 0:12:21 | 0:12:24 | |
generating way out in the Atlantic, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:25 | |
moving up from the South West into Scotland and right | 0:12:25 | 0:12:28 | |
up across Scotland from Dumfries and Galloway, the Borders, Tayside. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:31 | |
Then in January, what we saw was the wind direction shifting around | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
and we saw a lot of rain coming in off the North Sea. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
That was perhaps a longer-duration event. | 0:12:37 | 0:12:39 | |
It extended over several days. | 0:12:39 | 0:12:41 | |
Now, we had quite a mild December. | 0:12:41 | 0:12:42 | |
Did that have an impact on the flooding? | 0:12:42 | 0:12:44 | |
December was exceptionally mild. | 0:12:44 | 0:12:45 | |
It was about five degrees warmer than average across the UK | 0:12:45 | 0:12:48 | |
and that is really exceptional. | 0:12:48 | 0:12:50 | |
Sometimes you may get a month is a degree warmer | 0:12:50 | 0:12:52 | |
but to have it five degrees warmer than average is quite something. | 0:12:52 | 0:12:55 | |
That meant there wasn't a great deal of snow. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:57 | |
The snow that did come didn't tend to last. | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
It melted and that had to come down the rivers as well. | 0:12:59 | 0:13:02 | |
So it's raining but why flooding? | 0:13:02 | 0:13:04 | |
What's the circumstances that produce floods, | 0:13:04 | 0:13:07 | |
you know, the whole area under water? What happens to make that? | 0:13:07 | 0:13:10 | |
Well, basically, with the amount of rain we've had, | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
it's just saturated the ground. | 0:13:12 | 0:13:13 | |
The ground is absolutely sodden, reservoirs are full, rivers running | 0:13:13 | 0:13:17 | |
high, constantly being topped up, and that water just has to run off. | 0:13:17 | 0:13:21 | |
There's nowhere else for it to go. | 0:13:21 | 0:13:22 | |
How bad was the flooding in relation to previous years? | 0:13:22 | 0:13:26 | |
It was quite exceptional. I don't tend to use the word unprecedented. | 0:13:26 | 0:13:30 | |
Big floods always have occurred, always will occur, but really, | 0:13:30 | 0:13:33 | |
in our gauged record, in other words, the period that we've had | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
these recordings for, they were pretty exceptional. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:38 | |
The like of the Tay, for example, the second-highest on record | 0:13:38 | 0:13:42 | |
in that period, the River Dee, by far the highest on record. | 0:13:42 | 0:13:45 | |
But bear in mind that big floods have always occurred. | 0:13:45 | 0:13:48 | |
So, for example, there's well-documented history of flooding, | 0:13:48 | 0:13:51 | |
the great Moray floods of 1829, and it is fairly clear that some | 0:13:51 | 0:13:56 | |
of the floods then were much bigger than we've seen in recent days. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:59 | |
So you're not a betting man | 0:13:59 | 0:14:01 | |
but there's a fair chance this is going to happen again? | 0:14:01 | 0:14:03 | |
I would say so, yes. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:04 | |
I think there's every likelihood we will always get more flooding, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:07 | |
and indeed, quite likely to get bigger ones in future. | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
So, if it's going to happen again, what can we do about it? | 0:14:14 | 0:14:17 | |
In the Borders, on one of the tributaries of the Tweed, | 0:14:20 | 0:14:23 | |
the locals are turning to something called natural flood management. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:27 | |
For centuries, people have been manipulating Scotland's landscape. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:34 | |
We've drained the land to make it more productive, | 0:14:34 | 0:14:36 | |
created flood banks to protect crops | 0:14:36 | 0:14:39 | |
and straightened out rivers to make way for roads and railways. | 0:14:39 | 0:14:43 | |
We've created an environment where water runs downstream really, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:47 | |
really quickly. | 0:14:47 | 0:14:48 | |
Natural flood management is all about slowing things down. | 0:14:48 | 0:14:52 | |
I've come to meet Hugh Chalmers by Eddleston Water. | 0:14:55 | 0:14:58 | |
-Hugh, how are you? -Hi, Dougie. | 0:14:58 | 0:14:59 | |
Good to see you. | 0:14:59 | 0:15:01 | |
His group, the Tweed Forum, are working with nature to try | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
and protect Peebles from flooding. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
-So Eddleston Water is a tributary of the Tweed? -Of the Tweed. | 0:15:08 | 0:15:11 | |
-That's right. -OK. -It hits the Tweed at Peebles. -Right. | 0:15:11 | 0:15:14 | |
Tell me about this project, then. What are you doing here? | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
-Well, we're looking at the whole of the Eddleston catchment. -Uh-huh. | 0:15:17 | 0:15:20 | |
The Scottish Government's funding this project specifically to see | 0:15:20 | 0:15:23 | |
if natural flood management actually works in real life. | 0:15:23 | 0:15:27 | |
So this whole catchment is 70 square km. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:31 | |
Peebles is down at the bottom here and the river runs about... | 0:15:31 | 0:15:34 | |
The main stem river runs about 20km. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:36 | |
So how much of a problem has there been with Eddleston Water | 0:15:36 | 0:15:38 | |
in the past, then? | 0:15:38 | 0:15:40 | |
Well, Eddleston Water runs through the village of Eddleston, | 0:15:40 | 0:15:43 | |
and Peebles actually floods about 300 properties. | 0:15:43 | 0:15:46 | |
So there is a flooding problem here. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:48 | |
And we're using natural features in the catchment to | 0:15:48 | 0:15:50 | |
slow down the water. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:51 | |
This is what's known as a leaky dam. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:56 | |
And the group have installed more than 50 of them | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
to slow the stream's progress towards the main river. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
They've also planted 160 acres of woodland | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
and I'm helping Hugh replace the trees that have died off. | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
So how can planting little saplings like that, Hugh, help prevent, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:15 | |
or help to prevent, flooding further downstream? | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
Well, it will take a bit of time, | 0:16:19 | 0:16:20 | |
but once a tree starts to grow, this is a well-grown older tree here, | 0:16:20 | 0:16:24 | |
once they start to grow, they do various things. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:26 | |
They can actually intercept the rainfall, OK? | 0:16:26 | 0:16:28 | |
Then if the leaves are out, | 0:16:28 | 0:16:30 | |
-there's evapotranspiration that's sucking up the water. -Uh-huh. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
So they use up a lot of water. | 0:16:32 | 0:16:34 | |
It also helps the rainfall to infiltrate into the soil | 0:16:34 | 0:16:37 | |
so the soil can then act as a reservoir. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
-The stream's only ten metres away there. -Yeah. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:43 | |
The water will take a long time to get here through the trees, a | 0:16:43 | 0:16:47 | |
lot longer than it would than, say, through if it was just grazing land. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:51 | |
-Yeah. -And that's very similar to Sir Walter Scott. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
He mentioned that back in the 1800s. | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
He said what they were doing by draining the uplands was | 0:16:56 | 0:16:59 | |
converting, like a thatched roof into a slate roof, | 0:16:59 | 0:17:02 | |
so the water runs off really quickly. | 0:17:02 | 0:17:04 | |
And they had noticed that in the Tweed way back in the 1820s. | 0:17:04 | 0:17:07 | |
The river was responding really quickly to high | 0:17:07 | 0:17:10 | |
rainfall in the uplands. And that was upsetting their fishing. | 0:17:10 | 0:17:13 | |
Yeah. So if it comes off the uplands really quickly, | 0:17:13 | 0:17:16 | |
-potential problems downstream very quickly. -Yeah. Exactly. | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
-And this is slowing it down? -That's right. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:22 | |
As well as planting trees and creating leaky dams, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:27 | |
the Tweed Forum have done what's called remeandering to this river. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:31 | |
It used to run poker straight alongside the old railway. | 0:17:31 | 0:17:33 | |
Now they've put the wiggles back. | 0:17:33 | 0:17:36 | |
This is the re-meandered Eddleston Water in summer. | 0:17:38 | 0:17:42 | |
The team have added to the length of the river | 0:17:42 | 0:17:44 | |
simply by putting curves back in, | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
slowing the flow of water towards Peebles. | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
So this is the once-straight river? | 0:17:50 | 0:17:52 | |
-No more. -That's it, Dougie. Yeah, yeah, quite different. | 0:17:52 | 0:17:55 | |
Some of the work was carried out on farmer Kenny Watson's land. | 0:17:55 | 0:17:58 | |
So, why did you get involved with this in the first place? | 0:18:00 | 0:18:03 | |
Well, when Tweed Forum approached us, | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
we were quite happy to get involved. | 0:18:06 | 0:18:08 | |
-This is an area of ground that's sort of wetland. -Mm-hm. | 0:18:08 | 0:18:10 | |
And this was quite suitable for us. | 0:18:10 | 0:18:13 | |
I mean, better ground, it wouldn't have been suitable on, | 0:18:13 | 0:18:16 | |
because, really, letting the water go laterally, spread out laterally, | 0:18:16 | 0:18:20 | |
you know, might not be best on better agricultural land. | 0:18:20 | 0:18:22 | |
-And were you compensated for this work? -Not directly financially, no. | 0:18:22 | 0:18:26 | |
But one thing that they have helped us out with is fencing, | 0:18:26 | 0:18:30 | |
bordering the ground and put in improved drainage here and there. | 0:18:30 | 0:18:33 | |
There's no doubt in my mind we're likely to get worse floods in future | 0:18:33 | 0:18:37 | |
and, if this helps to sort of, um, you know, | 0:18:37 | 0:18:40 | |
prevent some of it or even improve the outcome, then we're all for it. | 0:18:40 | 0:18:45 | |
Last December, Peebles DID flood. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:48 | |
but the Tweed was responsible, not Eddleston Water. | 0:18:48 | 0:18:51 | |
It looks as though the work is paying off. | 0:18:53 | 0:18:55 | |
However, it's still too early to say for sure. | 0:18:55 | 0:18:58 | |
So, the Tweed Forum will continue to study | 0:18:58 | 0:19:01 | |
the effects of these techniques and they're not the only ones. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:05 | |
It's not just here in the Borders where people are trying to | 0:19:05 | 0:19:08 | |
harness nature to prevent flooding. As Sarah's been finding out, | 0:19:08 | 0:19:12 | |
similar work is going on in the north-east. | 0:19:12 | 0:19:14 | |
Here on Deeside, on the farms around Tarland, a number of | 0:19:17 | 0:19:20 | |
different natural flood management techniques are being tested. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:25 | |
-So, how old is this bund? -This bund? Um, coming up to two years. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Dr Mark Wilkinson from the James Hutton Institute | 0:19:29 | 0:19:32 | |
is showing me a bund. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
You're walking on top of a soil bund. | 0:19:35 | 0:19:37 | |
What we could say is a raised buffered strip. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
It's about 50 centimetres high of earth and two metres wide. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:44 | |
And how does it work? | 0:19:44 | 0:19:46 | |
Well, basically, we have one field and, | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
when the soil gets too full of water, | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
what we want to do here is break that water and slow the flow | 0:19:51 | 0:19:55 | |
and stop it running into the houses down here. | 0:19:55 | 0:19:58 | |
-Then, so this... I see a pipe. -This pipe's important, | 0:19:58 | 0:20:02 | |
because what we're trying to do is to drain the water from this field, | 0:20:02 | 0:20:06 | |
for one day after the event, so the field does not become | 0:20:06 | 0:20:09 | |
waterlogged and the farmer can still grow his crops here, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:13 | |
so this is sort of a pipe that slowly allows the water to | 0:20:13 | 0:20:16 | |
drain out into this wetland system here. | 0:20:16 | 0:20:19 | |
Just like the Eddleston project, | 0:20:19 | 0:20:21 | |
it's about slowing the natural flow of the water. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
Although a single bund proved no match for January's deluge, | 0:20:25 | 0:20:29 | |
the aim is to create lots of bunds to prevent | 0:20:29 | 0:20:31 | |
this sort of flooding in Tarland. | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
What if we...? We have one field, one small bund. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:38 | |
What if we were to replicate that across the whole catchment? | 0:20:38 | 0:20:41 | |
Each field, so work in the small pockets, | 0:20:41 | 0:20:44 | |
small wet areas of the farmer's field, | 0:20:44 | 0:20:46 | |
which they're willing maybe to give up, um, | 0:20:46 | 0:20:48 | |
and then they can farm the rest of the field, | 0:20:48 | 0:20:50 | |
so it's trying to work in the areas that we can. | 0:20:50 | 0:20:53 | |
Mark has worked on the project with Simon Power, estate manager | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
at the MacRobert Trust, which owns much of the land in the catchment. | 0:20:58 | 0:21:01 | |
With the agreement of the tenant farmer, they built the bund | 0:21:01 | 0:21:05 | |
in a couple of days with machinery they already had. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:09 | |
From an estate point of view, | 0:21:09 | 0:21:11 | |
-I mean, you would prefer to find a natural method like this...? -Yes. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:15 | |
-..than hard engineering? -Yes, the big question that Mark and I | 0:21:15 | 0:21:19 | |
have been discussing is how many of these sorts of schemes would we need | 0:21:19 | 0:21:23 | |
in order to make it comparable with a massive scheme that | 0:21:23 | 0:21:26 | |
Aberdeenshire Council had talked about doing in the Howe of Cromar, | 0:21:26 | 0:21:30 | |
which would affect two farm tenants, but would've held | 0:21:30 | 0:21:32 | |
an enormous amount of water and probably meant that | 0:21:32 | 0:21:35 | |
they couldn't have grown barley any more, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:36 | |
cos they would've had to have grass fields on a permanent basis. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:39 | |
So the hope is that, | 0:21:39 | 0:21:41 | |
if we have a number of these schemes dotted about the estate, | 0:21:41 | 0:21:44 | |
that they could all add up to something of a similar capacity. | 0:21:44 | 0:21:47 | |
As well as a bund, rough grass strips | 0:21:48 | 0:21:51 | |
have been planted with trees along the Tarland burn. | 0:21:51 | 0:21:54 | |
These help to slow the flow of water off the fields. | 0:21:54 | 0:21:58 | |
Large storage ponds, like this one, have also been created. | 0:22:00 | 0:22:04 | |
What will it take for schemes like this to be | 0:22:04 | 0:22:08 | |
-replicated across the country? -I guess two things, really. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
Firstly, look for opportunistic areas like this - | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
wet areas in the corner of fields farmers are willing to give up - | 0:22:13 | 0:22:17 | |
because they're wet anyway. But secondly, | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
if we are going to take farmland out of production, | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
we need to look at parent mechanisms, through farm subsidies, | 0:22:22 | 0:22:25 | |
to try and compensate farmers to store larger volumes of water. | 0:22:25 | 0:22:29 | |
Experts, including Mark, say natural flood management projects | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
can never replace large flood defence schemes. | 0:22:34 | 0:22:37 | |
But they are relatively cheap in comparison | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
and do have an important role to play. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
What do you think? If you have any thoughts on flooding | 0:22:44 | 0:22:46 | |
and how we deal with it, share them via our Facebook page, | 0:22:46 | 0:22:50 | |
or send us an e-mail to... | 0:22:50 | 0:22:55 | |
Now, here's Euan in Perth. | 0:22:55 | 0:22:57 | |
As we've heard, natural flood management | 0:22:59 | 0:23:02 | |
can only be part of the solution. | 0:23:02 | 0:23:05 | |
It can never replace the need for what's called hard engineering. | 0:23:05 | 0:23:09 | |
For example, flood defences, like here in Perth. | 0:23:11 | 0:23:15 | |
As the level rises, these gates are closed | 0:23:15 | 0:23:18 | |
to prevent the Tay from spilling over | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
and, in total, over £25 million has been spent | 0:23:21 | 0:23:24 | |
protecting the fair city from flooding. | 0:23:24 | 0:23:27 | |
Perth's defences were built after these floods in 1993, | 0:23:28 | 0:23:33 | |
When thousands of homes were affected | 0:23:33 | 0:23:35 | |
and the authorities were forced to act. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:38 | |
During Storms Desmond and Frank, only five homes were inundated | 0:23:39 | 0:23:43 | |
and this was due to the drains being overwhelmed. | 0:23:43 | 0:23:47 | |
The river didn't flood. | 0:23:47 | 0:23:48 | |
Now the Scottish Government has committed to spending | 0:23:50 | 0:23:53 | |
£235 million on flood defence schemes across the country. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:59 | |
But should we also be letting | 0:23:59 | 0:24:01 | |
landowners do more of their own flood protection work? | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
Some farmers are saying that even more could be achieved | 0:24:04 | 0:24:07 | |
if the authorities would free them up from red tape and let them | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
carry out work on their own land, including dredging the river. | 0:24:10 | 0:24:14 | |
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency allows farmers | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
to dredge small stretches of river in certain circumstances. | 0:24:19 | 0:24:23 | |
Most work, though, needs a licence | 0:24:23 | 0:24:26 | |
and that can be difficult to get hold of. | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
That swept down the river from further upstream. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:31 | |
Andrew Bauer from the National Farmers' Union of Scotland | 0:24:31 | 0:24:34 | |
wants this to change. I'm meeting him on a farm by the Tay, | 0:24:34 | 0:24:39 | |
where the river breached its banks. | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
This field here, we have winter wheat. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
That may be salvageable, although there's obviously damage. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:46 | |
Over here, we have about 14-15 hectares of carrots. | 0:24:46 | 0:24:50 | |
About 1,000 tonnes would be expected out of a field like that, | 0:24:50 | 0:24:53 | |
enough for a million bags of carrots. | 0:24:53 | 0:24:55 | |
-Oh, that's just gone in a couple of days? -Gone. | 0:24:55 | 0:24:58 | |
-Obviously, you want to repair this wall... -Yeah. | 0:24:58 | 0:25:01 | |
..in the flood defences, but what else do you want to happen? | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
Well, this is what's called prime agricultural land and only 3% | 0:25:04 | 0:25:06 | |
of Scotland's agricultural land is prime agricultural land. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:09 | |
This is where our vegetables, food, comes from, apart from red meat, | 0:25:09 | 0:25:14 | |
so we think it's important that this type of land be protected, | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
so that farmers should have the ability to strengthen | 0:25:17 | 0:25:20 | |
flood defences, heighten flood defences and, in the rivers - | 0:25:20 | 0:25:24 | |
you know, this is the Tay, it's a heavily-protected river - | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
it's appropriate that it continues to have a level of protection, | 0:25:26 | 0:25:30 | |
but we need to have better working between SEPA and farmers | 0:25:30 | 0:25:33 | |
to identify what the solutions are | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
and, if it's not a designated part of the river, and there is | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
a pinch point in the river, where you have gravel bars building up, | 0:25:37 | 0:25:40 | |
we need options for farmers to be able to remove those | 0:25:40 | 0:25:43 | |
and remove them responsibly. | 0:25:43 | 0:25:45 | |
An entire crop of carrots ruined - a terrible waste. | 0:25:45 | 0:25:49 | |
But would dredging have made any difference? | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
David Harley from SEPA isn't convinced. | 0:25:54 | 0:25:56 | |
In many cases, when it comes to large-scale floods, | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
dredging has a negligible impact on mitigating that flood. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:06 | |
For example, we know there were studies done in Perth | 0:26:06 | 0:26:09 | |
and they worked out that, if you removed large-scale sediment | 0:26:09 | 0:26:14 | |
and gravels - I think the figure was 40,000 tons - | 0:26:14 | 0:26:17 | |
it would take two inches off that flood height. | 0:26:17 | 0:26:21 | |
-That won't make much difference, will it? -Negligible, in many cases. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
Is it a difficult one to sell to farmers who, you know, | 0:26:24 | 0:26:27 | |
they're looking at fields underwater? | 0:26:27 | 0:26:30 | |
They want to get rid of it as quickly as possible! | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
Yeah, I can see that, particularly after times of, you know, | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
serious inundation and serious crop damage. You know, emotions are high. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:40 | |
And we are here to... Actually, SEPA is here to help farmers in that. | 0:26:40 | 0:26:44 | |
If people want to make repairs to breached flood embankments, | 0:26:44 | 0:26:46 | |
we can help them with that. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
They can actually do that without authorisation. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
There is small-scale dredging they can do without authorisation | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
as well, so they should really come and talk to us. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
I know there's a fear factor about coming and talking to SEPA, | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
but we really urge farmers to come and speak to us. | 0:26:59 | 0:27:02 | |
We do need to, you know, on one level, | 0:27:02 | 0:27:04 | |
help farmers where it does add benefit, but on another level, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:08 | |
make sure that we don't create worse problems further downstream | 0:27:08 | 0:27:11 | |
for communities, for other farmers, um, and for wildlife. | 0:27:11 | 0:27:17 | |
No doubt the debate over dredging will continue. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:27 | |
In the meantime, those affected by flooding | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
are still picking up the pieces. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
But don't forget, if your business or your home has been | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
affected by flooding, then you are entitled to a grant of £1,500. | 0:27:34 | 0:27:40 | |
To apply for the grant, you need to contact your local authority. | 0:27:42 | 0:27:46 | |
Well, that almost brings us to the end of the programme, | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
but we couldn't go without mentioning the one good news story | 0:27:51 | 0:27:54 | |
to emerge from all this misery, and that's how | 0:27:54 | 0:27:57 | |
communities pulled together and rallied to help each other. | 0:27:57 | 0:28:00 | |
Community halls were converted to emergency centres. | 0:28:02 | 0:28:06 | |
Sites sprang up on social media to connect people and offer aid. | 0:28:06 | 0:28:10 | |
And everyone pitched in | 0:28:10 | 0:28:12 | |
to help their neighbours get back on their feet. | 0:28:12 | 0:28:16 | |
It seems that, when Mother Nature does her worst, | 0:28:16 | 0:28:18 | |
human nature is at its best. | 0:28:18 | 0:28:21 | |
Landward will be back on the air just after Easter. | 0:28:21 | 0:28:23 | |
In the meantime, from all of us, | 0:28:23 | 0:28:25 | |
thanks for your company, bye for now. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 |