Taming the flood-How far can we go with trees?

Like many parts of the world, some locations in the UK have seen unprecedented economic damage from severe flooding in recent years (e.g., Huntingford et al., 2014). This has resulted in a strong media interest in flood issues, highlighting the linkages between climate and hydrology to help the general public understand the conditions that generate floods and how they impact on communities. There is growing general awareness that climate change may be increasing the frequency of flood-generating precipitation events (Marsh et al., 2016). In addition, the well-known (to hydrologists!) links between land use and catchment hydrology is finally gaining some traction in the public consciousness (http://www.monbiot.com/2015/12/29/going-downhill-fast/). Increased media coverage, growing public awareness, and the sheer scale of economic impacts have increased political pressure to develop new approaches to flood alleviation strategies that recognise the nonstationary nature of a changing climate and the need for more sustainable land use strategies that mitigate, rather than exacerbate, flood risk (Lane, 2017).