Under the Weather

Abstract

As a result of climate change, there has been a shift in the global weather pattern. The hydrological regime in river basins across the world is subjected to unprecedented extreme weather conditions. In the Thames Basin, the narratives about resilience against sudden floods and extended droughts have focussed on sustaining London through large, expensive infrastructural projects. As such extremities become common over time across the basin, the relationship between the megacity and its ecological hinterlands is turning increasingly strained.

The increasing intensity of water-related disasters like droughts and floods across the basin are a sign of disruptions in the flows of the water cycle, and the disproportionate degree of responses to addressing them signifies the biases within the power structures that control the supply, distribution, and treatment of water. The thesis seeks to examine these imbalances of power within integrated river basin management through the lens of urban political ecology to address the inequalities in how citizens in different settlements across the basin are exposed to water risks in terms of compromised quantity and quality of water.

In addition to seasonal flooding risks, the entire basin is subjected to threats to water security as a result of population growth, changes in rainfall patterns, and high levels of pollution. This threat to water security is affecting the countryside’s ability to sustain its agricultural practices in the face of declining national food security. The project further seeks to adopt a site-sensitive approach to water risk management that acknowledges the water needs of the countryside. Moreover, with its position upstream of the basin, the actions towards water management taken here to slow the river and increase groundwater infiltration could help reduce the intensity of fluvial flooding downstream and work towards recharging fresh water supplies.