Flood gate

The job of getting water to go where you want it to go has just got easier thanks to an invention pioneered by the Environment Agency.

In 2007, Mike Williams, a technical specialist with the agency, teamed up with a Devon-based engineering company to develop a device that could revolutionise the way wetland habitats are created.

The challenge was to come up with a better way of creating wildlife-rich wetlands around rivers and estuaries without increasing the risk of flooding to adjoining land and properties.

Although the technique is widely used in the US, there are only a few sites in the UK and, where it has been used, the equipment has had to be imported – with cost and carbon-footprint implications. Williams believed that the Environment Agency could develop its own design that could be manufactured locally and installed in more places.

After months of development, Williams and a team from Stoneman Engineeringfinally hit upon a solution - a rotary valve. Made of stainless steel and operated by an adjustable float, the valve controls the amount of water flowing in and out of a site.