On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 23:29:29 +0100, chris French
wrote:


anyone have knowledge of this, or can point me to source of info?
I can confirm what Colin said, it is Norwich Union who have the
database on flood risk. It's not exactly in the public domain but they
are making it available to the research community. To that end, they
gave a presentation on it at my University recently, although I was
unable to attend myself. A colleague did, however, so when he's back
from the States next week I'll find out from him how detailed their
database is.
Generally the fens are close to or below sea level anyway, and the
water table is lowered by artificial drainage. One problem that can
occur, is that at high tide, the sluice gates may have to be kept
closed to prevent sea water getting into the rivers. River levels can
then back up and cause flooding problems usptream. This happened to my
parents house in Suffolk a couple of times during exeptionally high
spring tides.
Aforementioned colleague has more experience in hydrology than I -
I'll check with him next week on sources of information.

--
David Shepherd
Wymondham,
Norfolk