I had a walk onto Clifton Ings yesterday, to see how the flood water storage scheme was working. This shot looks over the flooded area towards Poppleton Road. The trees closest to the camera are where a small stream normally flows. The river itself is marked by another row of trees and a bank in the distance.
The Ings are surrounded by two flood banks. One runs close to the river, while the other (on which I'm standing) is some distance from the river at the opposite side of an area of flood plain. The two banks meet to the north and south of the Ings, forming a complete circuit. There are two substantial sluice gates in the banks, one at the north end and one at the south end. Measuring devices in the rivers north of York allow experts to predict when the flood will reach it's peak, and to reduce this a proportion of the water is diverted onto the Ings by opening the northern sluice gate. Later, as the flood level goes down, the northern sluice gate is closed and the southern gate is opened and water is slowly released back into the river. If timed correctly, the water diverted onto this area can reduce the height of the flood in the city by around 6 inches (15cm).
Great capture of the water storage. Love the beam of sunlight. Fav. The fields beside our rivers that store the to much of water are called ; Uiterwaarden``
Lovely to see this at work and doing the job well. One of my oldest and bestest friends lives in Upper Poppleton, you made me smile at the remembrance this morning!
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated!
As Jesika said in her comment, 'a flood plain doing what it was designed to do', but with a bit of help from the engineers absorbing far more water than it would naturally do.
Thank you to those of you expressing concern about my safety when exploring areas of flooding. I can reassure you that all my shots were taken from safe places. I have no intention of becoming a flood victim!
Sorry for my missing post yesterday - Since Katharine is feeling much better I took the opportunity to visit my mum, which meant I was not back in York until quite late last night.
Ian
February 26th, 2020
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
beautiful capture - looks like a dam and not a flood river
Thank you all for your lovely comments and favs, they are very much appreciated!
As Jesika said in her comment, 'a flood plain doing what it was designed to do', but with a bit of help from the engineers absorbing far more water than it would naturally do.
Thank you to those of you expressing concern about my safety when exploring areas of flooding. I can reassure you that all my shots were taken from safe places. I have no intention of becoming a flood victim!
Sorry for my missing post yesterday - Since Katharine is feeling much better I took the opportunity to visit my mum, which meant I was not back in York until quite late last night.
Ian