Six new aqua-greens have been established in the Derringham area
A new £8.4 million natural flood resilience scheme has now been completed in Derringham. The new scheme is part of a wider £23 million flood resilience across Hull and the East Riding.
Six new aqua-greens have been developed in the Derringham area at Louis Drive, Danube Road, Hunsley Avenue, Moorhouse Road, Coventry Street, and Manor Road. The aqua-greens can help prevent flooding by temporarily holding water that falls during heavy and prolonged rainfall and slowly releasing it back into the sewer network.
The surrounding areas are designed to draw the water into the basin shaped aqua-greens, ensuring a degree of control if heavy rainfall persists. As well as helping to prevent flooding, the aqua-greens create urban habitats that increase biodiversity and green spaces for the local community to enjoy.
The aqua-greens are part of the Living with Water partnership which is a collaboration between Hull City Council, East Riding Council, Yorkshire Water, the Environment Agency, and the University of Hull. Living with Water was set up following the floods of 2007 with the aim of reducing the risk of future floods.
Cllr Charles Quinn, the Environment portfolio holder at Hull City Council explained that the aqua-greens have been funded by Yorkshire Water through Government grants. Cllr Quinn told Hull Live that the aqua-greens will not just be in Derringham, and that “the whole city is getting projects such as this.”
He added: “We’ll be moving on to Orchard Park which is getting a scheme such as this. There are flood protection schemes in East Hull taking place at the moment and then hopefully over the next five years we’ll get more funding to do more projects across the city as well.”
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The soil moisture levels and the amount of water being stored in the aqua-greens is constantly monitored by experts at the University of Hull. Stuart McLelland, Professor of water science at the University said: “When it rains and water flows into the aqua-greens, we know how much water is being stored, the rate of which it’s being stored at and the rate at which it’s flowing out. But also by looking at the soil moisture we’re understanding how the aqua-greens behave over a longer period of time.”
Emma Brown, partnerships manager at Yorkshire Water and the general manager at Living with Water explained that the Living with Water partnership works as a “co-development and co-funding model” that looks at how to “invest collaboratively to increase flood resilience to local homes, businesses, and infrastructure.”