What’s an Internal Drainboard?

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An internal drainage committee, or IDB, is a formal group, organization or authority charged with preparing and managing flood waters, usually in areas of high risk of flooding. The term “inland drainage edge” is mainly used to refer to such organizations in Wales and England, although similar groups exist elsewhere, such as “watershed districts” in the United States. Generally, such groups are given special authority to conduct preventative and remedial work within a given geographic region to ensure water is discharged appropriately. Their responsibilities include flood prevention; infrastructure conservation; and when possible, ecological conservation. The primary responsibility of an IDB is to take all necessary actions to ensure proper drainage of water from a given area and prevent flooding, thereby protecting people and property from potentially dangerous flooding.

There is a wide range of routine maintenance and emergency response tasks that an in-house drainage committee can address in order to ensure proper water drainage and prevent flooding. Water sources such as rivers and streams are quite important, as water levels can rise dramatically as rainfall increases. An IDB may be called upon to maintain the integrity of such water bodies, which include rivers, lakes, smaller streams, and others that may flood with increased rainfall. Also very important is the maintenance of areas that are normally dry but flood easily with high levels of rainfall, as flood water generally has to flow to a certain place or in a certain direction to avoid damaging something important.

In some cases, an internal drainage panel may be required to protect specific critical infrastructure components from flooding. They may, for example, need to ensure that a particular road, factory or power plant remains safe from flooding. In some cases, it’s just a matter of advising those who are building such structures. In others, the IDB may need to take direct action to ensure that floodwaters discharge in a manner that does not damage these infrastructure components.

At the most basic level, the primary job of an internal drainage panel is to control water levels within a given geographic area. On a day-to-day basis, this could involve changing existing streams, creating new streams, or modifying an area to better manage floodwaters. These boards also commonly manipulate plant distribution, as some may help maintain waterways or improve floodwater management. In an emergency, internal drainage councils can coordinate with emergency agencies to divert water from high-risk areas. They can also take on the effort to clean up and repair an area after a flood situation.

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