15Jun 2021
CEP to deliver a new project on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

CEP has been awarded a new project by Defra to analyse responses to a call for evidence on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP), in partnership with Middlesex Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), has been commissioned by Defra to analyse responses to the Call for Evidence on Local factors in managing flood and coastal erosion risk and Property Flood Resilience (PFR) and the responses to a consultation on Amendments to the Flood Re scheme.

The Call for Evidence will explore:

  • how we can strengthen our flood and coastal defence investment programme through better assessment of local circumstances, including how potential changes to the funding formula could provide further benefit to frequently flooded communities.

  • PFR, which includes measures people can take to help reduce flood damage to their property and enable faster recovery (e.g. temporary flood barriers, raising plug sockets and so on), and ways of accelerating this policy and address any barriers to progress.

The Flood Re Consultation:

  • Defra consulted on a number of proposals, including some which go further than Flood Re’s Quinquennial Review proposals in order to accelerate the uptake of Property Flood Resilience and better support customers and insurers to recognise these benefits.

The objective of the analysis is to enable government to implement the priorities for partnership funding and PFR as set out in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) policy statement.

In this project we are:

  • applying a systematic approach to review stakeholder responses to Defra’s Call for Evidence and flood Re consultation including evidence submitted as part of responses; and

  • delivering two workshops on the call for evidence with different sets of stakeholders to look in more depth at the evidence presented and to facilitate meaningful discussion of their implications for policy implementation.

The project started in March 2021 and is expected to run until June 2021.

For more information, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP).

Team CEP
17May 2021
Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D Programme, focused on working with communities, now published

CEP was commissioned by Defra & the Environment Agency to develop a Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) R&D programme, focused on working with communities, which has now been published

CEP in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW) was commissioned to develop a Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) Research & Development (R&D) Framework focussed on Working with Communities.  The aim was to take a strategic view of research in this area to enable a clear programme of research to be planned for the next five years. This included conducting a detailed literature review, identifying research gaps, and setting out 12 priority areas for future research. These outputs will be used by the Defra/Environment Agency FCERM R&D programme to shape existing and future research projects and to prioritise their research funding. The outputs can be found in the following reports:

The Working with Communities research and development framework has three aims:

  • To improve institutions’ understanding of how communities, RMAs and other organisations can work together to improve resilience and adapt in the face of the increased risk of flooding and coastal erosion caused by climate change (Institutions)

  • To evaluate and support improvements in the effectiveness of working together on flood and coastal erosion risk management from the perspectives of communities, RMAs and other organisations (for example, NGOs) (Effectiveness)

  • To support the development of more comprehensive approaches to participation that recognise that the capacity of different communities to become involved in flood and coastal erosion risk management will vary (Community capacity)

The framework is structured around six flood and coastal erosion risk management activities and five research questions:

Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management activities

  1. Management of flood risk assets

  2. Preparation for, response to and recovery from incidents

  3. Participation in decisions, designs and funding for schemes

  4. Preparation and adaptation of homes to reduce flood impacts

  5. Participation in conversations about long term adaptation

Research questions

  1. To what extent and in what ways are members of the public participating in the six topic areas across all sources of flood and coastal erosion?

  2. What are the barriers and facilitators to members of the public participating in the six topic areas across all sources of flood and coastal erosion?

  3. What approaches/models of participation encourage/discourage members of the public participating in the six topic areas across all sources of flood and coastal erosion?

  4. What types of governance and institutional arrangements facilitate or inhibit members of the public’s participation in the six topic areas across all sources of flood and coastal erosion? 

  5. What are the costs and benefits (to communities and RMAs) of members of the public participating in the six topic areas across all sources of flood and coastal erosion?

The literature review showed that for each of the FCERM activities and research questions there were few instances of extensive past research which address all the research questions. The two areas with the greatest strength of evidence were Incident management (Activity 2) and Managing land (Activity 4) with Participation in decisions and designs for schemes (Activity 3).  

Once the gaps had been reviewed 12 outline proposals for projects to fill the gaps were developed. Fig 1 shows the titles of those projects and how they link to the aims of the framework:

Figure 1.

Figure 1.

For more information contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project Manager).

Team CEP
28Jul 2020
CEP evidence review informs Defra Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk

Defra has just published CEP’s ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience’ alongside its Policy Statement which sets out the government’s long-term ambition to create a nation more resilient to flood and coastal erosion. 

Defra published its Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk on 14 July.  An ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience‘ and a summary report of the outcome of the 2019 Flood and coastal erosion: call for evidence (two supporting documents prepared by Collingwood Environmental Planning) were published at the same time.

As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the government intends to boost the long-term resilience of homes, businesses, infrastructure and the environment and reduce harm from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion. The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England, which was laid before Parliament on 14 July, calls for transformational action on resilience and adaptation. The move towards “flood resilience” from “flood risk management” reflects the need to diversify strategies to enable people to live well in the context of floods.

To inform Defra’s Policy Statement, this project reviewed the main frameworks for defining and conceptualising flood resilience, and how such frameworks can be used in a resilience approach for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. 

The evidence review involved:

  • A Quick Scoping Review covering the main approaches to flood resilience currently in existence and the use of metrics to implement resilience approaches

  • Two evidence review and policy implementation workshops involving FCERM policymakers and cross-government practitioners.

For more information please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant, CEP).

 

Team CEP