Building flood resilience

tCV’s flooding Project officer, Claire Bailly, with pupils from Coalsnaughton Primary School monitoring the local wildlife along the river devon and looking out for signs of flooding. neil Gardiner

in recent years Scotland, as elsewhere in the uk and across the globe, has seen an increase in major flood events with devasting consequences for local residents and businesses. although no single flood can be attributed solely to climate change, this is generally accepted by the scientific community to be a major factor in their increasing frequency. to meet this challenge, local volunteers across the country are raising awareness of flood risk and are monitoring flooding hotspots. the volunteers can spot the build-up of debris, including fallen trees, and report this information back to flood risk management teams who can take action to remove the debris before it causes major problems.

Since 2016, tCV’s Flooding Resilience Project has helped several initiatives to train, equip and support local volunteers to increase their communities’ resilience to flooding:

in Stirlingshire, tCV and the fintry flood forum organised two days of citizen science activities and tree planting along the river endrick, aiming to reduce the risks of flooding in the village. local volunteers are continuing to monitor the local water courses.

Volunteers in aberfoyle and Strathard in the trossachs are monitoring and recording flood risk hotspots.