Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management

Purpose

This Policy Position Statement sets out our current position relating to flood and coastal risk management in the UK and the challenges we face in the future, particularly in the context of climate change. Floods and coastal erosion cannot be prevented but they can be managed.  Failure to manage the risks of flooding and of coastal erosion in a sustainable way will lead to continued loss of life and property, extensive damage to the UK economy and ongoing misery for millions of people.

Communities in the UK have always lived close to rivers and, as an island nation, the sea.  The flood plains associated with rivers and coastal areas are important parts of their functions.  Coastal processes lead to the continuous loss and creation of land around our shores.  It is only when mankind comes into conflict with these natural processes that the risk of flooding and erosion becomes unacceptable. Much of this conflict is due to existing and new development in inappropriate areas, such as those at significant risk of either flooding or loss by coastal erosion. The consequences of floods and land loss are exacerbated when those at risk or those tasked with managing the risk are unaware of what to do and/or fail to plan for the inevitable.

Managing flood and coastal erosion risk requires high levels of professional expertise and the engagement of the public and local communities. CIWEM supports action to manage the risks and recommends the following key actions for policy-makers.

CIWEM calls for:

1. Greater cross-government and public recognition of the effects of flooding and coastal erosion on communities and individuals.

2. Recognition across government, the public and the media that we need to work together with nature in managing flood and coastal erosion risk.

3. Stronger, updated planning policies and guidance to include designated “blue belt” areas delineating significant flood plains and designated “yellow belt” delineating coastal erosion probabilities.  There should be a presumption against development in these areas.

4. A single authority for each of the countries of the UK to oversee all types of flood risk and coastal erosion risk management, working closely with local delivery organisations.

5.  A plan to address the skills and education shortfall across the flood and coastal risk management industry.

6. Continued support for initiatives to improve the knowledge base and wider appreciation of climate change, flood risk and coastal erosion. 

7. Greater powers for regulating authorities to control work and third party actions that are detrimental to flood and coastal erosion risk management.

8 Adequate funding by central government, secured over at least a 3-year rolling programme, to allow effective management of flood and coastal erosion risk.

The Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM) is the leading professional body for the people who plan, protect and care for the environment and its resources, providing educational opportunities, independent information to the public and advice to government. Members in 97 countries include scientists, engineers, ecologists and students.

Context

Assets worth over £250 billon are at risk of flooding and coastal erosion within the UK. This includes two million properties at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea with many more at risk of flooding from other sources such as surface water, groundwater.  The rate of coastal erosion varies significantly across the UK, from a near stable situation at North West Scotland to nearly 6m/year in parts of Suffolk. An additional 100,000 properties are at risk from coastal erosion over the next 100 years.  Annual average losses due to flooding are around £1 billion and without the existing 11,000 km of raised flood defences and other flood risk management measures, losses would exceed an average of £3 billion a year.  Significant major infrastructure at risk includes motorways, railways, hospitals, schools, electricity sub-stations and water treatment works.

In summer 2007 flooding was linked to the deaths of 13 people. 48,000 households and 7,000 businesses were flooded including 19,000 houses that flooded directly from rivers. Most of the property flooding was due to surface water and this illustrates the need to take all flooding sources into account and support the development of integrated plans to address flooding from all sources. There was severe disruption to transport routes and other infrastructure including the flooding of a water treatment works that left over 140,000 people without on-tap drinkable water for over two weeks. Power supplies to around half a million people were close to being lost. The cost of these floods is approaching £3 billion in insured losses with other costs estimated as around £1 billion.  There is a flood warning service for most rivers but only 41% of people who could receive this are signed up to the service.  The near miss on the east coast in late 2007 also serves as a reminder of our coastal flooding and erosion risk. 

Many people believe that flooding can be prevented and costal erosion can be stopped, however this is not the case and there is an urgent need to manage expectations and to educate people in what can be achieved. There will be areas that are no longer sustainable in the future and the only viable solution is for people to relocate.  Currently there is no realistic mechanism for making this happen, but we believe that this option ought to be considered more seriously by government.  CIWEM’s Briefing Report “Taking Managed Realignment Forward as a Policy Option for Coastal Management in England and Wales” discusses some of these issues in more detail.

Flood and erosion risk management across the UK is governed by separate government policies (see Appendix 1).  While they all focus on achieving sustainable flood and erosion risk management within the wider environmental and economic contexts, subtle differences exist in the delivery mechanisms and how works are justified and prioritised.  This is against a background of river basins and coastal cells, which know no geographical boundaries.

The UK has an ambitious growth agenda. In England alone, with a current rate of about 200,000 new properties per annum, the total housing stock of about 20 million could be doubled within the next 100 years.  The location and construction of these new properties have the potential to significantly worsen the overall flood risk if they are not properly planned. The separate governments of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have developed their policies for ensuring flood risk is considered within the development planning process (see Appendix 1). While these documents have all recently been or are being updated, the mechanisms to ensure their delivery and enforcement are still relatively weak.  On the other hand, the policies regarding coastal erosion and development planning are generally non-existent or out of date. 

Key Issues

Flood and coastal erosion risks are important because:
- they are a significant risk to life
- they affect the health and wellbeing of people and communities
- they cost the nation billions of pounds in losses each year
- they can cause damage to the natural and built environment
- the risk is increasing due to climate change, population and economic growth and inappropriate development

The effective management of these risks is threatened by
- inadequate powers
- inadequate funding
- lack of joined up approach
- lack of planning and preparedness by organisations and individuals
- the impression that “it won’t happen to me”
- unrealistic expectations (you can protect me against all floods / erosion)
- current level of technical skills and knowledge

Discussion

Despite a range of positive legislation and policy documents, flood and coastal erosion risk continues to increase. Action is required to safeguard human life and reduce economic losses to the UK and individuals.  This must be reflected not only in the policies but also in the actions of all relevant stakeholders, both private and public.

CIWEM calls for greater cross-government and public recognition of the effects of flooding and coastal erosion on communities and individuals. This will require all Government Departments to recognise the true social, environmental and economic costs to the UK of the losses caused by floods and coastal erosion. They will need to work together to align policies to reduce these risks through effective mitigation measures. They will need to manage the residual risks through the building of local and community resilience and joined-up emergency planning and response that deals with the immediate and longer term support for affected communities.

CIWEM calls for recognition across government, the public and the media that we need to work together with nature in managing flood and coastal erosion risk. Past practices of trying to defend all land may not be sustainable in the long term. Some land cannot and should not be protected from flooding or erosion in the future. Where land is protected it must be done with an understanding of the natural environmental, hydrological and geomorphological processes, ensuring interventions work with and not against these processes or cause unacceptable impacts to the adjacent areas. Within these we need to encourage measures such as sustainable drainage systems that mimic natural drainage, managed realignment that prevents coastal squeeze along naturally eroding coastlines and flood plain restoration and storage that reconnects watercourses to their natural flood plains.

CIWEM calls for stronger, updated planning policies and guidance to include designated “blue belt” areas delineating significant flood plains and designated “yellow belt” delineating coastal erosion probabilities.  There should be a presumption against development in these designated areas.
The existence of recently updated planning policies on development and flood risk across the UK shows the intention by government to prevent inappropriate developments with regard to flood risk.  They do however require strengthening with the development of a clear blue belt zone in which there is a presumption against development.  Maps delineating these areas should be developed and made public. CIWEM also believes that stronger enforcement of the delivery of the current policies are required to ensure the objectives of avoiding development in areas required for flood storage and conveyance and ensuring new developments do not increase flood risk. CIWEM also calls for the development and implementation of similar up to date policies for coastal erosion, together with clear designation of areas at risk. These areas could be designated “yellow belt” with a presumption against development.

CIWEM calls for a single authority for each of the countries of the UK to oversee all types of flood risk together with coastal erosion risk management working closely with local delivery organisations. Currently there are too many organisations involved in managing flood risk in particular.  This has led to a lack of a joined up approach to reducing risk. People who flood are not interested in the source of the flooding, only the consequences.  A single authority overseeing risk management (with countries combined where possible) will allow better planning and execution of works. Delivery at the local level will make best use of local knowledge and resources and provide a close and transparent link with the public who benefit.

CIWEM calls for a plan to address the skills and education shortfall across the flood and coastal risk management industry. Currently, there is a lack of skilled professionals to manage the current levels of flood and coastal erosion risk.  This is compounded by an inadequate number of people studying the relevant science and engineering courses.  With the need to increase spending to address the current problems and with climate change and development expected to increase flood and erosion risk in future, action is needed now by government to develop plans to build the required skills capacity.  The longer term skills provision will need to involve greater cooperation among the government, academic institutions, the local communities and the flood and coastal erosion risk industry.

CIWEM calls for continued support for initiatives to improve the knowledge base and wider appreciation of climate change, flood risk and coastal erosion. Reliable information is vitally important when making planning policy decisions. It is also important that this information is relevant, widely disseminated and easily understood so that the maximum number of people can appreciate the risks they and their communities face from flooding and coastal erosion.  Continued investment in research, backed up by the development of guidance and tools for managing the risks is required and initiatives to support wider dissemination and uptake by the industry and communities.

CIWEM calls for greater powers for regulating authorities to control work and third party actions that are detrimental to flood and coastal erosion risk management. Current regulatory powers are relatively weak and can result in uncontrolled works that directly impact on flood and coastal erosion risk. In river basins actions such as loss of flood storage or deflection of flood flows results in increased flooding to other areas. On the coast uncontrolled “erosion prevention” works can lead to restriction of natural processes and exacerbate erosion elsewhere. Such uncontrolled activities can also prevent access required to enable inspection, maintenance or management of the associated infrastructure.  The strengthening of the regulatory powers need to be backed by clear enforcement mechanisms and a requirement to ensure those given the powers actually use them.

CIWEM calls for adequate funding by central government, secured over at least a 3-year rolling programme, to allow effective management of flood and coastal erosion risk. Funding levels are insufficient to manage existing flood and coastal erosion risk. CIWEM calls on government to increase and sustain the funding levels to at least those recommended by the Foresight Future Flooding Report.  Government’s current expenditure in public organisations is set on an annual basis, in fact in recent years there have been occasions where funding cuts have occurred. This uncertainty of longer term funding has led to an inability of operating authorities to plan adequately and commit to flood and coastal erosion risk measures.  This is particularly important given the significant lead times for planning and delivery of the required measures.

September 2008

Useful References

Easter 1998 Floods – Final assessment by the independent review team (The Bye Report). September 1998

Lessons learned Autumn 2000 floods, Environment Agency, March 2001.

Lessons Learnt from the 2007 floods - The Pitt Review. Interim report December 2007 and final report June 2008.

Strategy for Flood Risk Management (2003/4 – 2007/8) Version 1.2. Environment Agency May 2003

Appendix 1: Key Legislation/Policy

Making space for water. First government response to the autumn 2004 Making space for water consultation exercise, Defra, 2005

Environment Strategy for Wales. Welsh Assembly Government, 2006

The future of Flood Risk Management in Scotland, February 2008. Latest document out for consultation.

Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 25: Development and flood risk. Department of Communities and Local Government, 2006.

Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) 20: Coastal Planning. Department of the Environment and Welsh Office, 1992.

Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) 7: Planning and Flooding, Scottich Executive, 2004

National Planning Policy Guideline (NPPG) 13: Coastal Planning, Scottish Office, 2007
 
Technical Advice Note (Tan) 15 – Development and Flood Risk:  Welsh Assembly Government, 2004

Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 15: Planning and flood risk – Department of Environment (Northern Ireland), 2006.

The Water Abstraction and Impoundment (Licensing) Regulations (Northen Ireland)2006 :  Department of Environment (Northern Ireland Government)

Water Environment and Water Services Act (WEWS) for Scotland 2003 (WDF specific to Scotland)

Water Resources Act 1992

Land Drainage Act 1991

Note: CIWEM Policy Position Statements (PPS) represent the Institution’s views on issues at a particular point in time. It is accepted that situations change as research provides new evidence. It should be understood, therefore, that CIWEM PPS’s are under constant review, and that previously-held views may alter and lead to revised PPS’s.