By Professor John Robertson
BBC Reporting Scotland this morning and all day today are back on the October 2023 Storm Babet and the flood damage to Brechin, with locals complaining of a ‘ghost town‘ and an implied accusation of the Scottish Government not having done enough to prevent the floods in the first place or to help locals in the subsequent year.
There is only a simple acceptance here of climate change and the need for more flood defences, to stay in the same place.
There is no mention of research suggesting another, more scientific and forensic explanation and an identifying a cause which can easily be reversed.
In an extensive, thorough and evidence-based study, Nick Kempe, a researcher and writer at ParkswatchScotland, pins the blame squarely and simply on grouse moor management around the River Esk and upstream of Brechin and Montrose.
He writes:
The south east fringes of the Cairngorms north of Brechin include some of the most intensively managed grouse moors in Scotland or the wider UK. In many parts of the catchment of the River South Esk managing the land for driven grouse shooting is the dominant land-use.
The muirburn, besides destroying peat which helps absorb rainfall, also removes surface vegetation, including plant litter, which helps slow the flow of water downhill. The rate of water run-off is almost certainly sped up further where the burned strips are oriented downhill, rather than across slopes.
Meantime, a google search will reveal that organisations representing sporting interests have issued a stream of claims that intensive grouse moor management actually helps to reduce flood risk.
Muirburn in fact does exactly the opposite of “natural flood management”, the restoration of woodland and peat bogs to reduce the amount of water flowing into watercourses. The conclusion is obvious. If the Scottish Government and its agencies really want to reduce the amount of destructive flooding that affects places like Brechin they need to tackle grouse moor management. Unfortunately Scotland’s whole system of flood prevention and management appears designed to conceal this fact.
Full report at: https://parkswatchscotland.co.uk/2023/10/27/storm-babet-the-angus-grouse-moors-and-the-flood-destruction-in-brechin/
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Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Could it possibly be because Brechin Castle is home to the Earl of Dalhousie who, I’d imagine had some interest in grouse shooting, that this theory had been kept under wraps?
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There would be no GLORIOUS TWELFTH if there was no grouse shooting, and we must have toffs experiencing GLORIOUS things, so anything interferes with that is bad. Forelock tugged.
Alasdair Macdonald
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aye the grouse moors and the fact that the ScotsGov so called advisors blocked maintenance of the South Esk at River St in Brechin.
Google maps clearly show the river there is full of shingle, and the bank has been allowed to grow into the river, there is nowhere else for the water to go, but up.
Montrose is next for this bad actor treatment, but here it’s the North Sea we are up against, no a wee river.
what could possibly go wrong.
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To be fair, the Brechin flooding incident was caused by a known fault in the flood wall the council didn’t have the funds to fix in time – Had they realised how much damage would be caused, they likely would have found funds somewhere despite ‘austerity’, but that’s hindsight for you – That Brechin should not be reliant on flood walls in this day and age is bluntly myopic…
The North and South Esk have both taken a hammering in recent years, even Robert Stevenson’s first bridge in Marykirk was destroyed having stood since 1814, and although I’m under no illusions grouse moor management did exacerbate the problem, it’s a drop in the bucket – Rainfall patterns and intensities have been changing for the worse over the past several decades before we even recognised “climate change” as we do today.
The solution is very much related to upstream land ownership and flooding it when required, under force of law where necessary – I engineered such a project years ago, all the farmers had to do was relocate hay bales and remove fences to enlarge the field so the cattle could move to higher ground when the flood waters rose – Historic downstream flooding in the city solved…
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Bob, the bridge at Marykirk is still there, it was part of the road that was washed away by storm Babet, the river there suffers from the same daft rules that blocked maintenance work in Brechin.
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I should have chosen my words better I admit, so I will try to correct your “the river there suffers from the same daft rules that blocked maintenance work in Brechin” a little more carefully.
Flooding remains very much misunderstood to this day from a time when dredging and widening was the answer to everything, it was actually a contributory element to last year’s Brechin flooding.
The trick to flood control is to knock the top off the surge flow before they arrive at the same point – By far the cheapest and easiest for a river is to hold back contributory feeds by restricting forward flow, flooding an unpopulated area until the peak abates then it flows away…
I’m sure it was in Torphins where I dealt with a recurring flooding problem, albeit at smaller scale but it illustrates the technique – All it needed was a longer bigger pipe in the road verge BUT with a wee pipe out the bottom at the downstream end… The level would build up inside the ‘tank’ until it would spill through a second top pipe at the downstream end… I can’t remember now how many cubic metres I designed it for, but a couple of years later none had seen the top one discharge, and no more flooding.
The only good thing to come out of recent flooding incidents was a shedload of data, which will help hydrologists in their future modelling, or as you might know them, “ScotsGov so called advisors”….. 😉
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Bob, at Brechin the flood water went over the top of the £16mill scheme, maybe if the so called advisors hadn’t blocked the maintenance of the river there, the flooding might never have happened.
It’s preventable disasters like this that make the ScotsGov look stupid and incompetent.
Next up for your entertainment, the environmental disaster at Montrose.
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Alex, convinced though you are that lack of river maintenance is cause, you need to better understand the hydraulics in play and changed rainfall – You were correct to say a restriction will cause levels to rise, but even were you to double the width of the river upstream, the levels would still rise to near enough the same due to any downstream restriction and hydraulic slope.
We need to be a bit more proactive on limiting flow and controlled flooding upstream if these problems are ever to be properly resolved, and that requires legislation which landowners will fight tooth and claw to prevent…
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I feel obliged with the greatest of respect Alex to correct your perspective on “the flood water went over the top of the £16mill scheme” – All flood control designs are essentially attenuation devices, the mechanics are much as described in the Torphins tank example upthread, it can only hold back so much before it becomes overwhelmed and spits over the top…
The scale of surge on both the Esks and elsewhere I’m told were unprecedented but haven’t seen the data as I’m now retired – I am however assured those who have are engaged in urgent conversation with Scottish and ‘English’ governments, and believe me when I say England has by far the greater problem with no disrespect to Brechin, due to slack gradients and millions of residents…
I’m fairly sure the Brechin/Marykirk and other experiences have now focussed minds more clearly on the immediate and upcoming problems with rainfall, certainly at SG – That ” £16mill scheme ” for Brechin was not the ultimate solution, it was the last redoubt for a portion of the city which I hope soon will be augmented by upstream attenuation when it will finally prove it’s worth despite your opinion of “advisers”.
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I think it’s incredibly disingenuous to say that it wasn’t the climate crisis that caused Storm Babet. It was.
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