New equipment to help flood forecasting in Lake District village devastated by Storm Desmond
Report by Ralph Blunsom.
New equipment has been installed to help predict future flooding in the Lake District village of Glenridding.
River monitoring appliances will be used to monitor Glenridding Beck, with the information it collects used to inform the Environment Agency's flood warning service and its response operations.
This monitoring station replaces an existing, more basic gauge which was installed as a temporary measure five years ago. The agency has described the equipment as "more resilient" adding that it "uses state-of the-art technology to monitor water levels on Glenridding Beck, even in extreme conditions".
Glenridding was badly affected by flooding during Storm Desmond in 2015 and has flooded several more times since then.
The aim of this new technology is to help people who live there make preparations as far in advance as possible if flooding is expected.
Stewart Mounsey, area flood and coastal risk manager for Cumbria, said:
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The Environment Agency will also install a new rain gauge in the upper catchment of Glenridding Beck at Green Side Mines later this year. This will provide rainfall data directly above Glenridding village to further help improve the flood warning service.
The Glenridding flood defence works, which involved removing 18,000 tons of gravel from the channel, replacing the existing river training walls and constructing new flood defence walls, were completed in July 2019.
The Government has announced has committed £82.1m of funding to more than 100 flood schemes across Cumbria and Lancashire in 2020/21.
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