On 20 November 2008 a joint meeting of the Institution of Civil Engineers' North West region and the British Dam Society (BDS) was held at the University of Manchester on the subject of flood detention reservoirs.
The subject of the meeting was a repeat of an earlier BDS event held in London in April 2008 when a half-day seminar was devoted to this subject including a contribution from Saxony in Germany. Some of the presentations from the earlier meeting were incorporated into the Manchester meeting but the content was reduced to suit the shorter duration and it was tailored to a more local audience.
The speakers were Alan Brown of Jacobs who presented on the hydraulic design and construction aspects of flood detention reservoirs; Stewart Ryder of Ryder Landscapes who presented on the environmental, planning and promotional aspects of such reservoirs; and Russell Stead of the Environment Agency, who presented on their operability including surveillance and monitoring.
A packed audience was treated to a comprehensive review of the whole subject area together with some fascinating illustrations of the extent to which vandals will go to in an attempt to damage these important engineering structures. There was also an interesting comparison of the potentially conflicting aspirations of the reservoir engineer and the environmentalist. The former desires a closely-cropped grass sward so that any defects or leaks can be readily observed (Figure 1) whereas the latter prefers to let nature take its course so that the presence of the structures can barely be seen (Figure 2). Russell Stead effectively described the often difficult position into which the operator of such structures is placed.
In addition to the three presenters above, thanks also go to John Ackers, Neil Harding and Andy Hughes who readily gave their permission for some of their information from the earlier seminar to be incorporated into these presentations.
