The British Geological Survey has launched a four‑year ground investigation of the River Tweed catchment to characterise groundwater behaviour and its interaction with river levels for improved flood forecasting. Work will include installing new monitoring boreholes, logging groundwater heads and flow paths, and integrating hydrogeological data with existing river‑gauge and rainfall records across the cross‑border catchment. Findings are expected to refine flood models used by local authorities and infrastructure owners, particularly for groundwater‑dominated flood events and prolonged saturation of transport and drainage assets.

Wildfire seasons in Western Canada are intensifying, with 2023 seeing more than 2,240 fires burning 2.84 million hectares in B.C. and insured losses of $720 million in the Okanagan/Shuswap and $1.3 billion from the 2024 Jasper fire, forcing repeated evacuations at sites such as Artemis Gold’s Blackwater and Cameco’s Cigar Lake. Operators and insurers are now treating wildfire as a core business-interruption risk, driving investment in backup generation for long transmission corridors, detailed continuity planning, and stricter underwriting. Engineers are also redesigning mine layouts and buildings for fire, favouring sites on ridge tops, wider building separation, non-combustible steel roofing and use of natural and linear infrastructure firebreaks.

National Trust and United Utilities are installing a series of timber “leaky dams” on moorland and farmland above the Stubbins Estate in Lancashire in a two‑year natural flood management programme to slow runoff into the River Irwell. The structures are designed to back up high flows in small headwater channels while allowing baseflow to pass, temporarily storing stormwater on the floodplain and in upstream depressions. For civil and drainage engineers, the scheme signals continued deployment of low‑cost, nature‑based attenuation measures alongside conventional hard‑engineered defences in upland catchments.