Flooding impacts emergency response time in England

-
 Journal: Nature Sustainability

Before:The Drum Bridge, Dunmurry,UK, 2009.
After: Photos by Albert Bridge
First responders, such as fire and ambulance services, will likely struggle to reach urgent cases in a timely manner during low-level flooding in England. These findings are reported in an analysis of emergency response time in England under adverse geographic and climate conditions, published this week in Nature Sustainability.
Ambulance and Fire and Rescue services are the primary responders for flooding events, during which demands for emergency services rise considerably. Flooding can impact their ability to respond within the 7- to 15-minute timeframes expected for responders by making roads impassable or increasing traffic congestion. Climate change is also expected to increase the magnitude and frequency of flood events which will make responding to emergencies more difficult.
Dapeng Yu and colleagues investigated how various levels of flooding impact the ability of emergency services to reach urgent cases. They conducted topographical analysis and traffic mapping for all locations of Ambulance and Fire and Rescue stations in England.
The authors found that 84% of the English population can be reached by ambulance within the 7-minute window for life-threatening incidents. However, under a 30-year river or coastal flood scenario, this drops to 70% and for a 100-year flood it is only 52%. The proportion of the elderly population that can be reached during a 30-year flood scenario is 65%, compared to 80% in normal conditions. The authors also highlight regional disparities in response times. Low-lying areas in the southeast and rural areas such as Cornwall see a reduction in response time under a 30-year flood. Greater London is also negatively impacted by surface flooding.
The authors conclude that although the impacts of the geographic spread of emergency services is well understood, the ‘cascading’ effects of flooding events must be used for more robust planning.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Conservative MP Absent From a Child Poverty Forum in Southwestern Manitoba.

-
Image
Are hungry kids a priority for the Harper government? by Larry Powell The forum (for the riding of Dauphin - Swan River - Neepawa) was sponsored by the Mission and Services Committee of the Neepawa United Church. It drew about 80 people to the church on Wednesday. But only four of the five candidates (see below) took part in the debate -  Ray  Piché  (Liberal),   Kate Storey (Green Party),  Inky Mark (Ind.) and  Laverne Lewycky (NDP) . The 5th candidate, the sitting Conservative MP for the area, Robert Sopuck (represented by the empty chair on the right), did not attend. His office manager in Neepawa, Christine Waddell, said he was in Inglis, a small community in the western part of the riding for the evening. She did not elaborate. But she did explain that a campaign worker was mistaken when he told forum organizers earlier that Mr. Sopuck would, in fact be there. Piché , the Liberal candidate, said the MP's absence showed “disrespect” for the rest of the candidates
Read more

A Candidate's Forum on Child Poverty Touches a Nerve in Manitoba.

-
Image
by Larry Powell Planet In Peril has sorted through some of the confusion surrounding the absence of Robert Sopuck (above), the Conservative Member of Parliament for Dauphin-Swan River-Neepawa,  from a candidates' forum on child poverty in Neepawa on Wednesday.  About a month ago, his office told forum organizers that he would be attending.  But his office manager in Neepawa, Christine Waddell, later announced he could not attend due to "scheduling conflicts." She said the night of the event, he was in Inglis, a small town in the western part of his riding.  This morning, however, Sopuck himself told PinP he had actually been in Roblin, a larger town just north of Inglis. A newspaper ad indicated it was a "meet and greet" affair. But that was in the morning in Roblin, a town within a 3-hour drive of Neepawa. So it's still not clear what the event in Inglis was which took priority over a candidate's forum. The MP bristled at my suggestion th
Read more

The Bio of Larry Powell - publisher of this blog.

-
Image
Larry Powell Powell is a veteran, award-winning journalist based in Shoal Lake, Manitoba, Canada. He specialize in stories about agriculture and the environment. For decades, he worked for broadcast outlets in all four provinces in western Canada. This included a 5 years stint as Senior Editor for CBC Radio News in Saskatchewan. He is authorized to receive embargoed news releases on important, global stories, through the Science Media Centre of Canada, the Royal Society, Nature Research and the World Weather Attribution Network. He's a member of the Science Writers and Communicators of Canada, the Canadian Association of  Journalists and a past member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2020, Powell joined an international team of writers providing articles for the Swiss-based online journal, Focusing on Wildlife - celebrating  the biodiversity of Planet Earth. In June, 2014, he was a panelist at a world conference in          Winnipeg entitled Holding
Read more