West Oxfordshire District Council (WODC) within the UK just lately refused a planning utility on the grounds of flood threat. The proposed growth included the development of only a single dwelling throughout the village of Standlake. Nevertheless, native campaigners had been capable of argue in opposition to the proposal with the advantage of groundwater degree information offered by a steady degree logger that had been put in within the backyard of an adjoining property. Instrumentation agency OTT HydroMet writes.
On this case, the developer took occasional handbook measurements that had been discovered to be of restricted worth as compared with steady readings from knowledgeable borehole logger from OTT HydroMet.
“The groundwater degree information was critically essential to our case,” explains native campaigner Paula Gaffney. “The village of Standlake is closely affected by flooding, so it is a main consideration in any proposed new growth, however with out proof, it’s troublesome to attract dependable conclusions.
“Because of this, we dug two boreholes adjoining to the proposed growth website and rented an OTT ecoLog 1000 water degree logger from OTT HydroMet to take measurements mechanically each quarter-hour, 24/7.
“This generated a steady information stream that offered a wealth of knowledge on native groundwater circumstances, notably when mixed with rainfall information from the close by Brize Norton meteorological station.
“Maybe probably the most placing conclusion was the stark distinction between our steady information stream and the developer’s occasional handbook observations from the borehole that they’d constructed in the course of the proposed growth website. Particularly, the WODC Lowlands Planning Sub Committee had been to notice that the applicant’s water degree observations didn’t coincide with any of the heavy rainfall occasions that came about.”
Standlake is positioned alongside the River Windrush, near the purpose the place it joins the River Thames. Village residents have turn out to be accustomed to common flooding, which is usually derived from rising groundwater. Drainage pipe ingress can be an issue and Thames Water continuously provides tankers to assist alleviate flood harm. Nevertheless, Standlake is in no way distinctive with its flood-related challenges and since their success in combating the event utility, the campaigners have been contacted by different villages in search of assist and recommendation on methods to deal with planning purposes in flood zones.
“Our suggestion is all the time to assemble dependable information,” says Paula Gaffney. “The set up of the monitoring system was a lot simpler than we initially anticipated. Digging the boreholes was most likely the toughest half! The phone help from OTT HydroMet was wonderful – serving to us to set the monitor to file the space from floor floor to the water, which was often close to to zero, after heavy rain.
“On-line entry to the information through the Hydromet Cloud net portal offered by OTT Hydromet was additionally very helpful. The power to entry real-time information within the cloud gave full and clear information entry to the WODC planning and drainage officers in order that they may see the fast rise of excessive water desk occasions and the sluggish infiltration fee as floor water ranges fell over a number of days.”
The OTT ecoLog 1000 contains a knowledge logger linked by cable to a stainless-steel probe containing a really steady ceramic stress cell. The datalogger shops measurements regionally, but in addition transmits encrypted information to an internet site that may be simply accessed by all stakeholders, offering clear entry to reliable information.
Explaining the significance of knowledge reliability, Paula says: “The set up of the ecoLog was easy and intuitive, however we had been eager for OTT’s help engineers to verify the configuration, in order that it might be relied upon as proof. This contrasted starkly with the applicant’s manually derived measurements, which had been clearly selective and, in some circumstances, might be misguided.”
Oxfordshire County Council’s drainage engineer visited the positioning and decided that the logger’s information demonstrated the positioning to be exterior the tolerance required for efficient soakaways. He additionally famous the absence of readings by the applicant throughout or following flood occasions and recommended that the applicant must also function an automated borehole logger.
Summarising, Paula says: “We had been very impressed with the diligence of the WODC Lowlands Planning Sub Committee, and clearly delighted that the proof we offered empowered them to find out that the proposed growth would lead to unacceptable flood threat. The truth is, one of many councillors remarked that this was the primary time an utility had been refused on the grounds of flood threat.”
Typical customers of the OTT ecoLog 1000 embody authorities companies, flood managers, builders, native communities, freeway managers, rail community operators, water corporations and water useful resource managers, in addition to consultants, teachers and environmental researchers. Nevertheless, OTT HydroMet’s Dr Liam Goodes says: “Local weather change is growing the frequency and severity of maximum climate, so it appears doubtless that flood threat is ready to turn out to be a higher subject in planning and growth.
“Clearly, Planning selections have to learn by dependable details, underpinned by correct information. Groundwater ranges can change shortly, so the OTT ecoLog gives all stakeholders, together with councils, builders and native communities, a chance to create dependable proof to make sure that planning selections are honest and underpinned by science.”
