Jubilee River Case Study
Jubilee River Case Study
Jubilee River Case Study
2.1 Civil Engineering – Jubilee River predecessor body, the National Rivers
Roger Venables, Visiting Professor in the Faculty of Engineering, Authority) recognised that there were
Queen’s University, Belfast potential implications for a much wider
area beyond the locality of the scheme,
Too often in the past, flood alleviation Jubilee River special in relation to the including significant lengths of the River
channels have been constructed as hard- social and environmental aspects of upstream and downstream of the
surfaced channels that added no or very sustainability is that it has been designed Scheme. Indeed, the solution and route
limited amenity or wildlife value to the to have many of the environmental and eventually implemented involved the
communities and landscapes into which amenity features of a natural river, placing of the Scheme on the north bank
they were introduced. However, Jubilee including islands, reedbeds and shallow of the Thames, although the greatest
River, the name chosen following a local margins. The channel has an average flood risk benefit accrues to communities
public competition for the £100 million width of 45 m and was designed to have on the south bank. Planners had allowed
Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton Flood a maximum capacity of 200 m3/sec, and is development in the flood plain on the
Alleviation Scheme, represents a new way similar in size and capacity to the River south bank, whereas the planners for the
of constructing flood relief channels. Thames channel in that location. A dry communities on the north bank had
weather flow of 10 m3/sec is passed down restricted such development. The scale of
The UK’s River Thames rises in Gloucester-
the channel to provide aeration and the scheme, and its implications for the
shire and flows eastwards to London and
amenity value from the flowing water. landscape, was also a significant
into the Thames Estuary and the southern
consideration in the design.
North Sea. As with many major rivers, The creation of the Jubilee River signifi-
communities have grown up at strategic cantly reduces the risk of flooding to
These wider considerations and the
points such that, in times of sufficiently approximately 5,500 homes and 12,500
scheme’s scale led to a new style of
high flow for the river to overflow its people in Maidenhead, Windsor and Eton,
solution – of a flood channel designed
normal channel banks, there is a signi- in addition to reducing the risk of
and constructed not as a traditional
ficant risk of flooding properties close to disruption to road and rail networks,
concrete channel but to be mostly
the river. communications and utilities. It flows
unlined to look like a natural river, with
from just upstream of Boulter’s Weir in
A limited range of techniques is available numerous wildlife and public amenity
Maidenhead to just downstream of Eton.
to reduce this risk, primarily: features. In summarising the findings of
• upstream storage – the flooding of Although the new channel is aimed at the Public Inquiry into the Scheme, the
uninhabited land upstream of the reducing flooding risk, the proposers of Inspector said:“I find the evidence
vulnerable community, and the steady
release of that excess water back into
the river as capacity allows
• protective banks – permanent and/or
temporary
• relief channels, traditionally trapezoidal
in section and made of concrete
In the development of the need, and the material along the line of the channel
framing of the challenge to be addressed and out onto major roads, rather than
by the designers, extensive consultation create congestion, nuisance and
was undertaken with residents and others environmental damage along minor
likely to be affected by the Scheme, and roads crossing the Scheme
Planting schemes along the new watercourse
of course the consultation process • an early use in construction of included trees, shrubs and marginal planting as
continued through the Public Inquiry. geographical positioning systems for well as extensive reedbeds.
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the vegetation was firmly established, and healthier soils is judged that the Scheme is much more
some unexpected erosion occurred. The • a ‘greener’ business world; sustainable than an inaccessible, concrete
causes of these problems are still being • wiser, sustainable use of natural trapezoidal channel would have been.
investigated and include consideration of resources
how the design was refined as the project • limiting and adapting to climate
progressed. However, the problems change; and
underline the clear need, when adopting
• reducing flood risk.
a sustainable development approach, to
remain focused on the need, as far as It can be seen from the above brief
practicable, that the product or system description that, in creating the Jubilee
functions as intended, whatever River, the Environment Agency was