On 08/12/2015 16:52, Togless wrote:
"Scott W" wrote:

snip
I feel London is sleepwalking in to a massive mistake with
the latest plans to develop every remaining scrap of floodplain.
...
Planners will say that there is a risk of flooding but it is within
Environment Agency guidelines. However, what if these guidelines
are way off?

There is a very direct and immediate relationship between temperature
and atmospheric humidity (about 7% increase in specific humidity per
degree C of warming) which inevitably leads to more intense
precipitation and hence increased risk of flooding. If they're not
taking into account the fact that our part of the world has already
warmed more than one degree, and that the warming and rising humidity
will continue for decades to come (if not centuries), then they must be
under-estimating the risk of flooding.

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs_v3/Fig.B.gif

They must surely be taking that into account in the major flood models.
However, the local planning rules seem to be a movable feast and nobody
cares about building development on land known to flood (by locals).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown