OUT NOW: THE ENVIRONMENT, JUNE ISSUE

The June issue of CIWEM magazine The Environment is out now, and to coincide with this month’s Flood and Coast exhibition and conference, it’s all about how we adapt to climate change, including more frequent floods and storms.

Our headline interview is with global climate scientist Professor Saleemul Huq, who warns that as of 2020 we have moved into a post-climate-change world. This means that hotter, drier summers, wetter winters and more violent storms are now the norm, not the exception. The director of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development (ICCCAD) sets out what COP26 needs to deliver, to help countries of the global south adapt to the storms to come.

Climate adaptation projects can have disastrous – completely unintended – consequences, a new report has found. Marcus Taylor, Siri Eriksen and Lisa Schipper reviewed 34 adaptation projects that delivered “maladaptive” – or problematic – outcomes. They tell The Environment the three main reasons why good adaptation goes bad and suggest ways to improve outcomes for vulnerable communities, particularly in the global south. You can read the team’s original research here.

Paul Sayers, who advises the Climate Change Committee (CCC) on the UK’s climate-related risks, explores our readiness to deal with more frequent and extreme flooding. His projections support the UK government’s latest climate-change risk assessment and his article explores the overlap between flood risk and poverty in the UK.

Environment Agency director of FCERM strategy and national adaptation Julie Foley will be speaking at Flood and Coast again this year. She tells The Environment why partnerships will play a central part in better preparing for climate impacts.

Researchers have long understood how flooding brings distress, disruption and financial costs to families, homeowners and businesses. But they didn’t know much about the long-term mental-health impacts – until now. A team from Scotland’s James Hutton Institute launched follow-up studies with residents of Ballater and Garioch to explore the lasting mental-health impacts from flooding after the waters have subsided.

Property flood resilience is a clunky term for measures that better protect your home or business from flood risk. UK flood campaigner Mary Dhonau has travelled the country to visit flood survivors, to find out first hand what measures are effective in protecting homes and businesses. Her article goes into fascinating detail, showing that even small, practical PFR measures can save you a lot of money.

And CIWEM policy director Alastair Chisholm explains how the UK is working to improve PFR standards and to train the people and companies that supply these measures. CIWEM will play a critical role in this, having landed an Environment Agency contract to deliver accredited PFR training.

Finally, CIWEM chief executive Terry Fuller introduces the agenda for this year’s Flood and Coast. This is a critical year, with the UK hosting the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow in November. Flood and Coast is your opportunity to help CIWEM, the Environment Agency and the wider community of water and environmental management to help to set the agenda at COP26. This year’s programme is hosted on Hopin.