Management Issue Cutting across the Government Financial Constraints - Term Paper Example

Management Issues Caused by Flooding in the UK Name Course Tutor Date Table of Contents Introduction 3 Recent and Past Flood Scenario in UK and What was done to help the Situation 3 Management Issues Associated with Flooding in the UK 3 Insufficient Funds from the Government 4 Impact on Business 4 Crisis Management 5 Planning in Advance 5 Politics 6 People Failing to go to Work thus Making Businesses to Suffer 6 Environmental Management Issues 6 Insurance for Companies/ Business Insurers 7 Relevance of this issues to Management 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction Several people in the UK, about 5 million, are at risk due to flooding caused by rivers and coastal flooding. Millions of property is destroyed and in some cases deaths occur. According to recent floods, the situation was so severe and it illustrated that the issue is growing bigger that before. Some of the other common flood effects include alterations in river channels, changes in the river and rainfall patterns, land management changes and general changes in agriculture. This, alongside the flood issues, has posed a lot of risk to management, especially when examining the actual picture on now to response to floods before and after occurrence. In fact, all this emphasizes the need to have management that is effective in managing flood risks. Therefore, this article looks at the overall flood management issue cutting across the government financial constraints while addressing the floods issue, impact on businesses, crisis management issues, planning issues, politics, low productivity and low human labour turnout. In entirety, it is an issue that management cannot live without discussing about. Recent and Past Flood Scenario in UK and What was done to help the Situation UK has been affect by floods, and more severely during the winter. In last December, high speed winds were record, and thus culminated in major floods near the North Sea, similar to an event that occurred in 1953. Whenever high wind speeds are recorded, cases of floods is bound to happen meaning the two are highly related (Parkinson, Goldenfum & Tucci, 2010). The environmental agencies have reacted to the situation by constructing coastal defenses and issuing early warnings so that a lot of damage can be avoided. Some of the actions done to help the situation include issuance of advice through government agencies, supporting the scheme of flood insurance, offering military support during crisis, making government announces to deal with the situation, and flood recovery through funding . For instance, in December floods, the government responded with business rate reliefs and grants to the affected. Management Issues Associated with Flooding in the UK Lamond (2012) argues that there are several management issues are being set up in order to minimize the risks associated with floods in the UK. River flooding is being managed in many ways, and certain policies have been put up by the government in order to minimize the risk. This has proved significant and people are being encouraged to adopt some management strategies that are cost effective, and friendly to the environment. In most cases, river management is part of the key steps towards managing floods. The steps can involve lengthening the time water takes before reaching a nearby river channel. The management techniques with regard to floods can range from soft to hard engineering options. The hard options are normally expensive and cause a lot of impact on the landscape and rivers whereas soft options are sensitive to the ecology. The entire of Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England is covered by the management issues with regard to flooding (Parkinson, Goldenfum & Tucci, 2010). The national database in the UK contains inspections for flood assessments of risks and defenses, thus assisting in reduction of future flood possibilities. Regular reports play a critical role to management in diagnosing the main issues. Insufficient Funds from the Government Normally, the aim of the government during a flood crisis is to direct funds to areas that are of highest priority. Reynard, Crooks, Wilby, & Kay (2004) research reveals that the current annual investment of floods stands at about 400 million pounds in a year whereby more than half of it is managed by Environmental Agency and the rest for maintenance. However, for the last few years, the government has focused on ways of reducing the level at which deterioration is caused by floods. The current levels of funding are not adequate to maintain the required flood defenses in several areas and as climates continue to change, this is likely to worsen. Impact on Business Floods are very destructive on individual infrastructure and businesses. For instance, power stations on outdoor areas are easily affected by floods. In the past cases, they have disrupted individual infrastructure, especially in 2007 when over 350,000 individuals lost their water supply for over 17 days, whereas over 42,000 lost the supply of electricity to their homes and businesses for more than 24 hours. This was a dire consequence to UK citizens in affect areas. The entire economy is affected by floods due to effect on supplies and production of a variety of goods such as cars, machinery, and services. This is normally felt after water recession and the recovery process normally takes weeks, months, or even years. The high costs of recovery and relief adversely affect investment on infrastructure and development activities in the affect areas. Recurrent floods have discouraged habitation and development in some regions, especially for long-term projects by both the private and government sector. The migrations of skilled manpower and inadequacy of livelihoods, alongside inflation, can negative impact on economic growth of some parts within the UK. In areas where resources are lost, the cost of services and goods increases, and generally both individual and cooperate programmes are retarded (Wilby, Beven, & Reynard, 2008). Crisis Management Some organizations such as Environmental Agency, ICE and NAO have clearly stated that there exist some other organizations that create problems and confusion when handling emergency, and possibly this increases risk of damage and death to some people. Some recommends that NAO has put forward include consolidation of the rescue responsibilities to a single agency, and supervisory to be done by different operating authorities. The risk of floods in the UK has been assessed several times and something needs to be done to improve the situation. For instance, flood forecasting should account for changes in land usage, and uncertainty in climate. The affect should also comprehend in terms of the fact that some flood risks cannot be prevented but can be managed. The most important thing is to raise alarm, improve the rescue mechanism, and improve planning, and co-ordination tactics during emergencies. Planning in Advance Management of different agencies is tasked with advance planning in order to mitigate the effect of floods. For instance the responsible departments should carry out a nationwide emergency preparedness by setting out some national framework that outlines the methodology for response to floods, give a compressive and easy to implement framework on how flood rescue activities should be addressed, and also review and coordinate policies with regard to flood emergency cases (Kusky, 2008). In terms of policy, management should address the effects of floods to people by encouraging the application of adequate warning systems that are cost effective, and which are economically and environmentally sound. Politics Parliamentarians are encouraged to take part in the design of key polices with regard to floods. The role of parliament is legislation and therefore, urgent matters to do with legal issues can be addressed from a political perspective. People Failing to go to Work thus Making Businesses to Suffer Floods can make road and bridges impassable. All the debris transported by floods are deposited on transport routes thus blocking vehicles and trails. This brings a lot of business activity to a standstill (Gaeuman, 2012). In the past, employees and employers are reported to fail attending job due to lateness or inaccessibility of the roads. Psycho-social impacts of floods in some victims, and even their families may traumatize them for prolonged periods. Loss of loved ones generates deeper impacts on, especially the children. The stress on individuals finally kills people’s enthusiasm to attend their job regularly. Environmental Management Issues Floods cause a lot of concern among various environmental agencies. This is because in some cases, they damage the main ecosystem functions and even biodiversity. Floods link rivers to the surrounding landfills, wetlands, recharge a number of groundwater systems, increase the connection between different aquatic habitats, move soil nutrients and sediments, and expand the marine environment temporarily. In some situations, migration, breeding events and dispersal is triggered (Holman, et.al. 2007). Regions highly modified by human activities will tend to suffer more from flooding than the more natural environments. Further, management will be concerned with degradation of the environment by floods that are capable of washing away vegetation, increasing the river channels, destroying dams and levee bank, clearing catchment areas, degrading rivers and hill-slopes and increasing erosion. This affects the quality of water downstream, releases more pollutants into rivers as a result of farm nutrients. This not only threatens the marine life but also discourages marine life through pollutants. Insurance for Companies/ Business Insurers The insurance of structures as well as its contents against flood risks can reduce the impact of floods on both companies and individual properties. In fact, flood insurance can form part of the content of your property or the buildings in general. This will help in safeguarding valuable assets on land, the home and even its contents. Flood insurance normally covers damage caused to businesses and homes in an event of unexpected flood. Further, mortgage providers and lenders expect buildings insurance to be in place before securing any loan. If the insurance policy against property is not secured, it can have implications on mortgage and may make it hard to sell property (Wigley, Ingram & Farmer, 1981). When property is flooded, the insurance for buildings will cover drying out cost, repair costs, restoration costs and fittings and fixtures. It can also cover items such as professionals fees, cost of clearing debris from the building, and other flood related charges. In most policies, the cost of alternative accommodation is covered. Alternative accommodation normally takes weeks or months before property is habitable again. What is more, the cost of damaged equipment, furniture, and other belongings is also covered. Relevance of this issues to Management The evaluation of flood risks is crucial to management. The analyzed flood issues advice management on the need to carry out continuous analysis and monitoring of flood defenses, natural systems, current flood risks, and drawing up the blueprint into what the future looks like. It also provides a map to management on how to manage exposure to built environment, population and vulnerable areas. Emergency responses are also prepared based on research on flood effects (Gaeuman, 2012). The entire flood management program will broadly take into consideration the processes such as rainfall, and the physical man-made systems that are meant to convey flood discharge into safe places. As a general rule, flood management plans are supposed to be economical, socially suitable and friendly to the environment. This allows for humble management without impacting the requirements of the future generation. Conclusion Through this research, we get a concise overview about the main issues on how inland flooding is being managed in the UK, and what can be done to improve the situation. A detailed understanding of flood management issues is essential to the UK government, not only for planning protection mechanisms but also coordinating the protection efforts. The report also discusses the role of advance planning to avert the effect of floods, funding flood control measures, making policies on flood management through parliamentary systems, managing crisis, and insuring property against losses. References GAEUMAN, D. (2012). Mitigating Downstream Effects of Dams. 182-189. HOLMAN, IAN P., HOLLIS, J. M., BRAMLEY, M. E., & THOMPSON, T. R. E. (2007). The contribution of soil structural degradation to catchment flooding: a preliminary investigation of the 2000 floods in England and Wales. Copernicus Publications for European Geosciences Union. http://hdl.handle.net/1826/1945. KUSKY, T. M. (2008). Floods: hazards of surface and groundwater systems. LAMOND, J. (2012). Flood hazards: impacts and responses for the built environment. Boca Raton, Fla, CRC Press. PARKINSON, J., GOLDENFUM, J. A., & TUCCI, C. E. M. (2010). Integrated urban water management: humid tropics. Boca Raton, CRC Press. REYNARD, NICK, CROOKS, SUE, WILBY, ROB, & KAY, ALISON. (2004). Climate change and flood frequency in the UK. Defra, London, UK. http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/2976/1/N002976CO%5B1%5D.pdf. WILBY, R. L., BEVEN, K. J., & REYNARD, N. S. (2008). Climate change and fluvial flood risk in the UK: more of the same? Hydrological Processes. 22, 2511-2523. WIGLEY, T. M. L., INGRAM, M. J., & FARMER, G. (1981). Climate and history: studies in past climates and their impact on man. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Read More