London Monsoon: Ideas to get the city ready for the flood?

When: 9th October 2019
What: ideas generated by Peoples Assembly to help prepare London for flooding.
Where: streets of London

Please note: the feedback from this assembly was recorded under challenging circumstances and tight time constraints. Problems with clarity should to accepted as a natural part of that process.

Remove Hard standing/ barren grass (green concrete),
concrete and tarmac was the problem.

Get rid of cars. Convert roads to orchards, reservoirs.

Create food parks.

We need to make grassed areas and parks.

Sustainable urban drainage: reservoirs under hard standing to store flash floods for tree/ plant watering and urban cooling. We need pathways with hard standing so the water can soak into the ground.

A lake so children can splash around.

Green roofs and water buts.

More composting.

Playfulness in participation as preparing for a flood could be a scary thing. Song and poetry engaging people in the issue.

Ponds, swales.
Tech embedded in finance.

Positive belief systems.

Un-tunneling of present tunnels rivers to use them as transport systems.

Create natural river systems with flood plains

Beavers upstream.

If you are going to build on the flood plane: build on stilts.
Build modular floating houses on ‘stilts’ like pontoons rising and falling with the water level.

Village on the water/river with walkways and bridges.

Seeing this as a multi-century long problem.

Local council reps assigned to take a lead on this- mobilise people.

Tree planting.

Digging up concrete drives and front gardens.

Getting communities involved by People’s Assemblies.

Each street becoming self sufficient in reuse of water and water storage.

Tarmac to become lighter in colour to reduce heat.

Compost toilets and urine collection.

Compost for local use prioritized.

Green walls, roofs and water butts, rainwater collection.

Coordinating ground infrastructure body to ensued existing road works (for instance are used to install SUD’S).

Weekly citizens assembly to instigate changes.

Use social media to publicise events/ activities.

We should have rules/ regulations in place on water sustainability.

Strictly enforcing guidelines.

Structure communities to help better deal with the possibility of a flood.

Education at schools is fundamental.

Actions plans where people live.

Zoning system to show which properties are most at risk.

Establishing a link between which properties are and aren’t at risk so they can help.

Discussion of using Dutch model of Amsterdam as an example.

Tree planting – good possible solution.

Using deadwood to block off areas at high risk of flooding (Stroud): could this apply to the Thames in slowing water down?