The Royal Academy of Engineers said torrential downpours, like those experienced in tropical countries, have already been seen in the last few years in Boscastle, Morpeth, Tewkesbury and Crewkerne.
As temperatures rise due to global warming the UK will have to be prepared for 'monsoon style' storms by building open drainage ditches beside urban roads, pourous pavements and storing water in reservoirs under car parks.
Lord Smith, Chairman of the Environment Agency, said Britain is experiencing a "new kind of rain" in the summer that is putting cities at increasing risk, especially London.
"We’ve been familiar for centuries with rain that comes marching across the country in a curtain, usually from the west, with relatively predictable consequences for everything in its path. That will continue to be the case. But now we are having to come to terms – as well – with rain that falls in huge quantities, all at once, in one place. Lots of it, in a defined area, falling as a deluge. And with climate change, we are likely to see this happening with increasing frequency."
Lord Smith said one in six people in England and Wales are now at risk of flooding.
In a speech to the Insurance Institute of London, he said insurance companies should reduce premiums for households that have taken steps to protect their property and re-build homes in a way that make them resilient to repeat flooding in the future.
Dr Peter Jones, head of the flood and coastal risk management branch of the Welsh Assembly Government, said existing systems had served the UK's cities well in the past, but with extreme rainfall events becoming more common as the climate changes some areas could suffer problems from surface water flooding.
At a meeting at the Royal Academy of Engineers experts from countries like Malaysia, that are more used to dealing with tropical storms, said the UK should look at new ways to prepare for the 'monsoon style' downpours such as allowing floodwater to run through certain streets.
Read full story at telegraph
'Monsoon style' floods to hit Britain
Climate change activist stopped from travelling to Copenhagen
UK border police used anti-terrorist legislation to prevent a British climate change activist from crossing over into mainland Europe where he planned to take part in events surrounding the forthcoming United Nations summit in Denmark.
Chris Kitchen, a 31-year-old office worker, said he feared his treatment by police could mark the start of a clampdown on protesters, hundreds of whom are planning to travel to Copenhagen for the climate change talks in December.
Tonight he will make a second attempt to reach Denmark, where he plans to take part in discussions organised by a network of protest groups coming together under the banner Climate Justice Action.
He said he was prevented from crossing the border yesterday at about 5pm, when the coach he was travelling on stopped at the Folkestone terminal of the Channel tunnel.
Kitchen said police officers boarded the coach and, after checking all passengers' passports, took him and another climate activist to be interviewed under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000, a clause which enables border officials to stop and search individuals to determine if they are connected to terrorism.
The passports were not initially scanned, Kitchen said, suggesting the officials knew his name and had planned to remove him from the coach before they boarded. During his interview, he was asked questions about his family, work and past political activity. The police also asked him what he intended to do in Copenhagen.
When Kitchen said that anti-terrorist legislation does not apply to environmental activists, he said the officer replied that terrorism "could mean a lot of things". By the time his 30-minute interview had concluded, Kitchen's coach had gone.
Police are understood to be monitoring protesters on a number of databases, some of which highlight individuals when they pass through secure areas, such as ports.
Kitchen is a prominent activist who has taken place in a number of peaceful acts of civil disobedience, such as glueing himself to a statue in parliament, to call for more action to cut carbon emissions.
"The use of anti-terrorist legislation like this is another example of political policing, of the government harassing and intimidating people practising their hard earned democratic rights," he said. "We are going to Copenhagen to take part in Climate Justice Action because we want to protest against false solutions like carbon trading and to build a global movement for effective, socially just solutions.
"People who are practising civil disobedience on climate change in the face of ineffectual government action are certainly not terrorists, and I am sure that their actions will be vindicated by history."
Kitchen added that police did pay for a ticket for him to return to London after questioning. They also arranged for the coach company to give him a seat on another coach.
Read full story at The Guardian
