Building on flood plains

[classic33]

Any scheme that can be conceived will have limited capacity, but a whole catchment area has far more scope for blotting up water and/or harmless flooding than a levee through the centre of a big city ever will.

Peat bogs are natures way of dealing with high water content, not a manmade one.

 

[Time Waster]

Peat bogs are natures way of dealing with high water content, not a manmade one.

But they were often drained by man so it is kind of man-made when it is restored. If you see a lot of peat bogs now and then visit the peat bog up near
High Tove in the Lakes you'll see what i mean. That was never drained. It is as much water as peat! Terrible to walk on when you lose the path. And I did mean lose the path, you will lose it no matter how well you might know the route.

 

[classic33]

But they were often drained by man so it is kind of man-made when it is restored. If you see a lot of peat bogs now and then visit the peat bog up near
High Tove in the Lakes you'll see what i mean. That was never drained. It is as much water as peat! Terrible to walk on when you lose the path. And I did mean lose the path, you will lose it no matter how well you might know the route.

They may have had their surface drained, but seldom will the bog have been drained. The water goes down a lot further than people think.
The summers of 76, 82 & 95 were dry, but the amount of water below the surface didn't drop to zero. We were still turning and stacking turf to dry, before bagging it. Only for not as long.
It dried out quicker on the surface than normally, even with no wind.

Follow nature the next time you go up to the peat bog in its natural state.

 

[Time Waster]

AIUI it needs to be wet up to the surface to maintain and even continue to create the peat. In the lakes trials for renewing peat bogs it was a kid of bowl in the rock but a lower end which allowed the farmers to cut ditches and even creating drainage streams at the encouragement of DEFRA or its predecessor way back when they were drained to increase viable land for food production.

The rewilding project dumped a lot of rock into these drainage channels man created in regular distances to slow the flow allowing it to back up and soak into the dry peat over time. Thus ultimately is to return it to the very damp bog it would have once been. Like that High Tove area I mentioned. This sort of land might not be the place where you can turn peat to dry. You'd be turning wet peat onto wet peat. Not sure how that would dry.

 

[presta]

High Tove in the Lakes

Walking on High Tove is like walking on a water bed, or riding the waves in a boat.

 

[Time Waster]

Or wading through a tarn. Depending on how far off path you get before you turn back!