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Module File
InfOgraphic Somerset Floods of 2014
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Sophie Higgins Infographic - Module File
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Intro When asked to design an infographic based on data on a personal level, I immediately thought of what was close to home at that time. At the end of December 2013 and beginning of January 2014, the Somerset Levels flooded severely, devastating thousands of acres of land and destroying peoples homes and businesses. Bridgwater, Somerset is my childhood home, I had lived there my whole life and have had family there for generations. I remember mild flooding in the past but never to extent it reached in 2014. Which begged the question, why now, and why so bad?
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What aRe the SOMerset LEvels? The Somerset Levels and Moors is an area of land that extends for about 170,000 acres (70,000 ha) across parts of the north and center of the county of Somerset in the West of England. It reaches from Clevedon near Bristol in the north to Ilchester in the south. Bridgwater Bay and the tidal Bristol Channel beyond form its western boundary. Thousands of years ago the area was covered by the sea, but today it's a landscape of rivers and wetlands - artificially drained, irrigated and modified to allow productive farming.
In Roman times artificial flood defences were built to keep out the tides from the nearby Severn Estuary, and ditches were dug. This created a network of inland channels to drain large areas of floodplain marsh. During the Middle Ages the monasteries at Glastonbury, Athelney and Muchelney drained and looked after the land. Dutch engineers arrived to drain the Levels in the 17th Century. Farmers have managed the landscape ever since. It’s one of lowest and flattest areas in the country with much of it below high water level on spring tides, and a maximum altitude of only 25ft (8m) above sea level. The wetland is supplied by the rivers Axe, Sheppey and Brue in the north, while to the south, the rivers are the Cary,Yeo, Tone and Parrett. It is these rivers which are at the centre of claims by farmers who say a lack of dredging has caused flooding.
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It's not unusual for the area to flood. The latest widespread flooding of the Levels is just one in a long record of flood events. Records show more than a third of the area (70,000 acres or 28,000 ha) was submerged in 1919. In the 2014 flood, it is estimated about 6,500 ha (16,000 acres), or about 10% of the Levels, are under water. Somerset County Council says about 150 properties, in the villages of North Moor, Salt Moor, Fordgate and Moorland, are affected by the current crisis. The Environment Agency says up to 40 homes have actually flooded. Farmers have seen as much as 95% of their land covered in water, sometimes up to 10ft (3m) deep.
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Back in London and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles says the government "made a mistake" by not dredging and may have relied too much on Environment Agency advice. The Environment Secretary is unhappy with this complaining "in the strongest possible terms" to the prime minister who has to step in and urge unity.
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Being so close to home, I was in the midst of the uproar. Residents were furious they were ignored and abandoned for so long. They were essentially cut off for over a month. This is not acceptable, and angered many. In an attempt to help and gain a greater insight into what the locals believed to have caused such a heightened level of flooding, I volunteered at the Somerset Flood Relief Centre. This was basically sorting out donations so that flood victims could get some supplies whilst they are out of their homes.
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Infographic Research For my research I looked in various magazines and Internet sites to inspire my infographic process. Here are some examples I particularly liked.
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Graphs of precipitation data
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It is utterly clear that there has been nothing unusual about levels of rainfall, so what has been going on in Somerset? There is, however, one awkward challenge that has to be made to the villagers. The Somerset Levels were built to flood. The name of the village derives from the Saxon for “great island”. If people choose to live on a historic floodplain, how can they possibly complain when it floods?
“Yes, the fields are meant to flood, but it is too much now,” says Maxine Grice, a long-time resident of Muchelney. “It comes too quickly and it stays too long. It used to happen every 10 years and it was never this deep. People have been flooded lately who never were before. It’s because the rivers haven’t been dredged over the last 20 years. They have silted up.” Others villagers agree this is why the flood levels have risen catastrophically. They blame the Environment Agency for neglecting the local rivers, which have now silted up so much that they can only carry a third of the water they used to. The theory is that this leaves the rivers unable to cope in the rain when extra water is also sent from Taunton and Bridgwater, from where it is pumped away to protect new homes built on former floodplains.
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Test I decided to do a 3d test with testtubes to reflect the previous data. Although I liked the idea I just didn’t think it was enough, and I lacked graphs and data of this kind to do more
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Final Outcome’s For my infographic, I decided to combine some facts I found on the 2014 floods with illustration done on illustrator. The facts I have are usually projection with same amount of imagery e.g. “150 homes were affected by the floods” so I used 150 house on the image. I then combined it with various other methods including projection and images I captured of the floods near me. My final outcome as my completed infographic was a A2 print with a series of pastiche photographs I took of the floods and my illustrator pictographs. The overall image is deliberately bright and colourful to catch your eye.
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First attempt was far too cluttered and word based
FLooDING oN THE SOMERSET LEVELS [1607] - 2000 people drowned when the Bristol Channel flooded, leaving 200 square miles of farmland inundated. [1872 - 1873] - 107 square miles (277km²) was underwater from October to March. [1981] - There was a large storm. Flooding covered 12,500 acres of land affecting 1072 houses £150,000 worth of livestock killed. Total cost of the damage was
£6M.
Since 1990, the drainage boards have been charged with watching the rhynes and keeping them clear, under the overall responsibility of the Environment Agency. However in recent years a number of villages have been cut off and land badly flooded. On January the 24th 2014, after a number of villages and farmland (17,000 acres overall) had been underwater for over a month due to the UK storms, Sedgemoor district council declared a major incident.
The levels occupy 160,000 acres (650 KM²) and are prone to winter floods.
It’s been widely reported that the rivers have no been dredged in the last 20 years, causing a build up in silt reducing the rivers water capacity to only a third of what they used to. Although there was heavy rainfall in December of 2013, it was not necessarily the root cause of the flooding. According to Met Office figures, rainfall in November was 23% lower than normal, plus the previously dry summer should have meant the river levels should have been fairly low as December began.
O n a ve r a g e , p r e c i p i t a t i o n
dingl levels are excee
y h i g h eve r y d e c a d e o r s o .
The basics of my infographic lie in the combination of my pictograms and their reglection in colour and literal reflection of imagery combined with my information on the flooding
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26 Test shots on tracing paper I decided to test the images printed on two stocks, 80gsm tracing paper and 100 gsm of white textured paper
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28 Test shots on wall with raindrop projection I felt this one did not work as I could not achieve a clear enough image with the light I had as it still needed to be dark for the projection to work. I feel as though my pictographs are lost.
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