Our area is subject to flooding from groundwater and river water. It is the high river levels that force groundwater levels to rise outside of their normal range. This can happen in areas that the river floods don’t reach. High groundwater levels can cause flooding of gardens and sewers and some cases result in water entering the living areas of houses. The Environment Agency has mapped the risk of flooding from rivers but in Oxford it has not been able to do this for groundwater flooding. Groundwater flooding can persist even after river levels have started to fall.

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