Debating Flood Risk Management

How to manage our flood risk is a widely-debated issue. To help us understand the perspective of the Environment Agency, David Rooke, the Agency’s Head of Flood Risk Management, shares his views on the way forward.

At the recent Defra Conference in Manchester you set out your vision for a post-Pitt world. Looking forward, what would be on your wish-list for flood risk management in 2015?

A new Floods and Water Act in place that has delivered significant improvements in service to people. Also, a long term investment strategy in place and funded to give certainty to people so they can plan their lives accordingly.

What do you see as the key issues in flood management that we, as a nation, need to tackle as we move forward?

The public needs to understand the risks we face and the actions we can take to manage flood and coastal erosion risk. We need to encourage operators of critical infrastructure to be aware of flooding and take action to make their infrastructure flood resilient. We need community resilience to flooding from improved development planning, emergency planning and response, and resilience of homes, buildings, services and utilities. And the public and industry need to be aware of climate change and the measures they can take to mitigate and adapt to it.

How do we better inform and involve the wider community in this?

The public need to be aware of flood risk before they can take preventative action. However, it is clear from the Pitt Review that despite communities being aware of their risk of flooding many have taken no action to prepare themselves for future flooding. There are number of tools which can be utilized to engage the public and business on this issue:

• Risk education. We need to make more people aware of their risk to flooding through our public awareness campaigns which educate communities on how they can make themselves more resilient. Recommendation 60 in the Pitt report is that the Government implement a public information campaign which sets out a single, comprehensive set of guidance which can be used by the public, industry, media and local and national Government before, during and after a flood.
• Many operators of critical infrastructure could do more to assess the vulnerability of their critical assets to flooding and to take necessary action to mitigate risk and ensure business continuity. We are therefore calling for measures to be put in place to ensure that key utilities and public services take responsibility for protecting their operations from the consequences of flooding. This should form part of a wider climate change proofing of critical infrastructure, facilities and services.
• There was evidence from last year’s flooding that much of the resilience work was carried out by communities and individuals – not just emergency responders. Indeed Newark & Sherwood District Council has developed a strategy to develop and implement valuable community assets such as storage facilities containing basic equipment and personal protective equipment to those high-risk communities.
• The media. The media provides an essential role in providing information to the public before, during and after flooding.

What do you see as the Environment Agency’s contribution to this?

Every year the Environment Agency has a public awareness campaign to reinforce the messages about preparing for a flood. We use a combination of local and national media and events to do this. We have also just published three new guides: ‘Preparing for a flood’; ‘During a flood’; and ‘After a flood’.

We have made significant advances in our public liaison over the last 10 years. We have recently trialled new ways of targeting those at risk to encourage them to sign-up to our flood warnings direct service, however, we also need the public to continue engaging with us and the other relevant bodies on this issue.

We need to ensure that essential infrastructure is built in the right place and that it is not located in places that will be vulnerable now or in the future taking into account the expected impacts of climate change. In particular we have called for:

• The Climate Change Bill to include a requirement for critical infrastructure operators to take adaptation and resilience to climate change into account
• Reinforcing of the Civil Contingencies Act to ensure that essential service providers take necessary action to ensure continuity of service
• A review of regulatory regimes to ensure that utility companies are properly incentivised to take action, through appropriate penalties for loss of service.

The Environment Agency, via its website and leaflets, produces information on how to protect your home from flooding, how to make your home more resilient and how to make up a flood kit.

We have a dedicated press office and communications team which continues to promote our key messages on how people can help themselves if they are at risk of flooding. We also hold flood surgeries throughout England and Wales where people can come and talk to Environment Agency staff about their concerns.

What changes do you expect to see in the draft Floods & Water Bill?

In terms of the FRM topics to be addressed, the Bill is expected to:

• Give more emphasis to holistic management, adaptation, resistance and resilience rather than just “defence”
• Cover all forms of flooding (including surface water, groundwater and reservoirs)
• Update the roles, responsibilities and powers of all bodies involved in flooding and coastal erosion, including giving effect to our strategic overview (in Wales part of the strategic overview role may rest with the Welsh Assembly Government)
• Revise funding provisions
• Transpose the EU Floods Directive covering risk assessment, maps and plans

How do you see the Environment Agency’s role changing?

Our strategic overview for all forms of flooding will allow us to have a more comprehensive overview of how we can manage flood risk. For surface water flooding this means we will develop the tools and methodologies to give to local authorities so that they can produce plans and be responsible for delivering improvements through partnerships with water companies and other relevant organisations – which may include the Environment Agency. We want to develop an improved system for mapping all forms of flooding, including surface water flooding. We also want to improve our flood warnings, particularly developing a warning system for surface water flooding.

What is the significance of publishing the UKCIP08 scenarios and how will this affect the way we go about our business in flood?

Climate change models predict an increased flood risk due to more extreme rainfall events and sea level rise, although no individual event can be attributed. Recent flood events have highlighted the urgency of adapting to the potential effects of climate change to protect lives, property, the economy and the environment.

UKCIP08 will provide the definitive view of what allowances we should make for future climate change and hence what solutions we should provide. Our planning for inland and coastal flood risk takes into account climate change predictions over the next 100 years. This year we are investing £500k in a research project that will enable our decision makers to apply the new climate change scenarios for the UK that will be published in November 2008 by the UK Climate Impacts Programme.

The Environment Agency’s flood risk management web pages can be found here.

UKCIP08 details here.

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