Taming the Flood: Rivers, Wetlands and the Centuries-Old Battle Against Flooding

In recent years the Somerset Levels suffered from the worst flooding in over twenty years. Inevitably the residents asked for more drainage, more dredging and more money. Flooding in the area has been an issue since it was a marshland, but is more drainage and more dredging the answer?Exploring the old arguments and new solutions raised over the last 400 years, this completely updated edition of the classic Taming the Flood reveals how harnessing nature, rather than attempting to repress it, is the only answer.As a practical landscape architect and ecologist working in the water industry, Jeremy Purseglove has been actively involved in land drainage engineering to try to …