The town of Lincoln, in Lincolnshire, emerged relatively unscathed from the floods of 2007, thanks to its flood defences holding up. The same could not be said of the farms and countryside around the county where river walls and washlands used as flood defences were simply overwhelmed by the heavy rain and poor drainage from fields, resulting in 30 hectares (74 acres) of farmland being flooded.
The UK's flood defences range from simple embankments and walls, to weirs, sluices and pumping stations and the massive Thames Barrier, which is only brought into operation when a high tide or flood is forecast.
The Environment Agency is responsible for flood defences in England and Wales. It directly manages 8,500 km of flood defences, and works in partnership with other owners on a further 4,000 km. Its review of last summer's floods found that only 0.2% of defences actually failed, and very few failed this year either.
The agency is now working on a 20-year investment strategy for flood management. Sir Michael Pitt's review of the 2007 floods and MPs on the environment, food and rural affairs select committee both concluded flood defences need to be planned and coordinated on a long-term basis rather than worked out piecemeal.
This will mean the agency abandoning its current points-based system, which prioritises spending on flood defence schemes according to greatest risk. This tends to favour large urban defences over rural ones, on the basis of the numbers of people potential floods could affect.
The Environment Agency's £400m flood risk management budget will be doubled for 2010-11. But the environment, food and rural affairs select committee said this sum still looked inadequate to cope with both the traditional and new risks facing the country.
The National Audit Office was also critical of the agency's maintenance of flood defences and in a report to the public accounts committee at the end of last year, argued that an extra £150m a year for 10 years was needed to bring them up to scratch.
Tim Kersley, head of asset management for the Environment Agency, disagrees: "It's an enormous step in the right direction. We need to increase investment incrementally and we know how and where we can use this money efficiently."
He argues that the infrastructure is in good shape, pointing out that the agency carries out 180,000 investigations each year on existing defences. But Pitt recommended the agency is more transparent about its maintenance works and publish a schedule of works coming up, so it is seen to be doing its job.
His report also calls for the agency to work more closely with local groups on ideas for locally funded and managed flood defences, which are currently "too low a priority".
And it recommends greater use of natural resources to combat floods, by using farmland to hold water and creating washlands and wetlands to keep water away from urban areas. In coastal areas, a salt marsh can reduce the impact of a tidal wave by 95%. This requires greater coordination between Natural England, the conservation agency, and the Environment Agency on land use.
It would also help deal with surface water flooding, responsible for much of last year's flooding.
