CIWEM survey on surface water management for Risk Management Authorities

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Surface water flood risk is the most widespread form of flooding in England. This risk is increasing due to climate change, population and urban growth. The causes of surface water flooding are complex often caused by a combination of factors including heavy rainfall, topography, impermeable surfaces, the capacity and condition of drains and sewers.

In addition to managing local flood risk, improving surface water management can also enhance the local environment, delivering biodiversity and water quality benefits as well as improve health and wellbeing.

In recent years there have been several Government Action Plans, independent reviews and government updates on surface water management. The findings from these documents present the challenges and opportunities faced by Risk Management Authorities (RMAs) and demonstrate how important it is to obtain and share views from those that have responsibilities for surface water management so continual progress can be made with managing surface water flood risk and increasing our resilience to flooding.

CIWEM has been asked by the London Drainage Engineers Group (LODEG), Local Government Flood and Coastal Erosions Risk Management Technical Advisors Group (LG FCERM TAG) and Association of SuDS Authorities (ASA) to undertake an independent review of surface water management to better understand the potential opportunities and challenges and provide some recommendations for improvement.

This review complements activities being undertaken by Defra, the Environment Agency and the National Infrastructure Commission. It will focus on three key areas:

  • Cooperation and collaboration
  • Funding
  • Capacity and skills

The review will include a survey and focus groups. We’re looking for those working in RMAs involved in delivering surface water management to please complete the survey.

The survey can be completed here.

We recognise the survey is detailed and is likely to take around 30-45 minutes to complete. If you sign into Google the survey response can be saved and revisited and a PDF copy of the survey can be downloaded below.

The deadline for responses is August 15th 2022.

To download a PDF of the survey, click here

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