Future
The barrier was originally designed to protect London against a very high flood level (with an estimated return period of one thousand years) up to the year 2030, after which the protection would decrease, whilst remaining within acceptable limits.
This defence level included long-term changes in sea and land levels as understood at that time (c. 1970). Despite global warming and a consequently greater predicted rate of sea level rise, recent analysis extended the working life of the barrier until around 2060–2070. From 1982 until 19 March 2007, the barrier was raised one-hundred times to prevent flooding. It is also raised monthly for testing.
Released in 2005, a study by four respected academics contained a proposal to supersede the Thames Barrier by a more ambitious 16 km (10 mi) long barrier across the Thames Estuary from Sheerness in Kent to Southend in Essex.
In November 2011 a new Thames Barrier, further downsteam at Lower Hope between East Tilbury in Essex and Cliffe in Kent, was proposed as part of the Thames Hub integrated infrastructure development. The barrier would incorporate hydropower turbines to generate renewable energy and include road and rail tunnels, providing connections from Essex to a major new hub airport on the Isle of Grain.
Read more about this topic: Thames Barrier
Famous quotes containing the word future:
“He had been given to behold
The race’s future trial place,
A fresh start for the human race.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“But I choose to think he is escaped from the possibility of falling into any future afflictions, and that neither the malice of his pretended friends nor the sufferings of his real ones can ever again rend and torment his honest heart.”
—Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)