River flood management: Low Crosby, Cumbria

Introduction

Low Crosby is a village located about 7km north-east of Carlisle on the north bank of the River Eden.

Sited on low-lying and flat ground, the village has experienced flooding on a number of occasions in recent years, including 1968, 1995, 2005 and 2009.

In 2015, Storm Desmond resulted in serious flooding throughout the region, inundating thousands of properties and cutting off road and rail communications. Low Crosby was particularly seriously affected by the flood.

Following the 2015 flood event, a new management scheme was developed to address the issue in Low Crosby. The innovative Low Crosby flood alleviation scheme has involved lowering an existing river embankment to deliberately allow excess water to escape onto the floodplain thus reducing the threat of flooding in the village itself. This is an excellent example of a 'soft engineering' solution involving natural flood management.

Working with the Flood Hub https://thefloodhub.co.uk/ and the Environment Agency, we have been delighted to produce a set of resources targeted at GCSE and focusing on flood management at Low Crosby. The resources comprise PowerPoint presentations and student worksheets and make extensive use of photos and OS map extracts.

Click the icons below to download the resources.