7Oct 2021
CEP undertaking evaluation of Property Flood Resilience Grant Scheme for Defra

CEP are leading on a new project for Defra to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grant scheme

CEP, in partnership with University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol and Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), Middlesex University, has been awarded a project by DEFRA to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair scheme to help understand the effect of the scheme on resilience in flood affected council areas.

The PFR repair scheme is activated following severe weather events that impact multiple local authorities, lastly in February 2020 and November 2019. All eligible flooded properties have access to grants through the PFR scheme. To be eligible a council area has to have more than 25 properties flooded.

This project will evaluate how the PFR repair scheme’s delivery process has worked and the impact this has had in areas affected by flooding. The two key questions are:

  • How effective are processes employed for delivering the Government Property Flooding Resilience (PFR) repair schemes in 2019 and 2020?

    • What benefits has the scheme delivered?

    • What improvements (if any) could be made?

  • What is the impact of the scheme in council areas that have received PFR grants and have flooded since?

    • In these areas, did the resilience measures make a measurable difference and if so, how

    • How does this contrast with areas where flooding has occurred, but PFR has not been utilised?

    • Has the scheme contributed to increase the uptake of PFR?

The project started in August 2021 and will run until August 2022.

For more information, please contact Clare Twigger- Ross (Project Director, CEP) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project manager, CEP).

Team CEP
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
31Mar 2020
CEP successfully hosted Communities and FCERM workshop

CEP successfully facilitated a workshop as part of a project to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework

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CEP recently facilitated a one day workshop with a range of key stakeholders to consult and engage them in the development of a Communities and FCERM R&D framework. The workshop, organised by the Environment Agency, successfully took place in London on Wednesday 11th March 2020 before government recommendations around COVID-19 came into place.

CEP, in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW), have been commissioned by the Environment Agency (EA) to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework. The primary aim of the project is to identify the main research gaps in the area of FCERM through a detailed review of the current science.

Information about the Communities and FCERM R&D framework project can be found here.

For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project Coordinator).

Team CEP
20Feb 2020
CEP reviewing evidence on flood resilience for Defra

CEP is leading an evidence review of flood resilience for Defra and the Environment Agency.

CEP is leading a project to provide an evidence review of flood resilience for Defra and the Environment Agency. The project was commissioned in summer 2019 and is expected to conclude in spring 2020. CEP’s consortium partners are the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University and HaskoningDHV UK Ltd.

The government’s 25 Year Environment Plan includes a goal to reduce the risk of harm to people, the environment and the economy from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion. “Boosting the long-term resilience of our homes, businesses and infrastructure” is one of the measures by which this will be achieved. Resilience is also central to the Environment Agency’s draft National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England which emphasises the need for ‘climate resilient places’.

The overall objective of the project is to review the concept of flood resilience and how it can be used in a resilience framework for managing flood and coastal erosion risks in England. 

So far the project has:

  • Developed evidence from peer-reviewed and grey literature on the main approaches to flood resilience that are currently in use.

  • Provided a summary of the responses to Defra’s ‘Call for Evidence on Flooding and Coastal Erosion’ to inform the Government’s policy on flood and coastal erosion resilience.

  • Supported engagement of flood risk management policy-makers and practitioners in exploring how resilience concepts, frameworks and metrics could best be implemented in policy and how to address any barriers to implementation.

  • Facilitated cross-Government consideration of the different concepts of resilience currently in use, how these could best be aligned and what targets and metrics could be used.  

The results of the research will be published by Defra later this year.

For more information please contact CEP’s Paula Orr (Project Director) or Spela Kolaric (Project Coordinator) for more information.

 

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5Feb 2020
CEP to research how to measure recovery from extreme weather events

CEP HAS RECENTLY BEEN AWARDED A NEW PROJECT TO HELP CLIMATEXCHANGE UNDERSTAND HOW TO MEASURE RECOVERY FROM EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS .

ClimateXchange has commissioned Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP), in partnership with the University of Strathclyde, to undertake research to help develop an approach to monitoring recovery from extreme weather events, including flooding, storms, drought, extreme cold in winter and above normal heat in summer.  The research will look at possible targets and indicators, which should be relevant to broader resilience frameworks and strategies in Scotland.  The main aim of the research is to enable a common understanding of climate resilience and the critical components in planning for local and national recovery from extreme weather.  

This research will involve an evidence review of recovery monitoring systems used elsewhere, identification and review of potential datasets that could be used to measure recovery from extreme weather events, and consideration of how monitoring recovery from extreme weather events can link and contribute to Scotland’s National Performance Framework, the Scottish Climate Change Adaptation Programme and the Preparing Scotland guidance for getting ready for and dealing with emergencies.

The project began in January and will come to a close at the end of March 2020.

For more information please contact CEP’s Paula Orr (Technical Director) or Dr Sian Morse-Jones (Principal Consultant).

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11Dec 2019
New EA project to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework

CEP HAS BEEN COMMISSIONED TO DEVELOP A COMMUNITIES AND FCERM R&D FRAMEWORK

CEP, in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW), have been commissioned by the Environment Agency (EA) to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework. The primary aim of the project is to identify the main research gaps in the area of FCERM through a detailed review of the current science.

The review process is being supplemented with interviews and further workshops with key stakeholders. The outputs from this project will help to set-out a roadmap for delivering and funding EA projects to fill these gaps. The project began in October and will come to a close at the end of 2020.

For more information please contact CEP’s Clare Twigger-Ross, the Project Manager, or Rolands Sadauskis, the Project Coordinator.

Team CEP
7Jun 2019
CEP at Flood & Coast 2019 conference

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (CEP) a panel member at the 2019 Flood and Coast conference.

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be presenting, on 18 June 2019, a short paper on community resilience to flooding at the 2019 Conference panel session Climate change – how do we overcome the physical, political & societal barriers to meet the challenge.  The other members of the panel are:  

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Convened by the Environment Agency, the Flood & Coast conference 2019 is a unique event that advances the debate about flood and coast erosion risk, resilience and response between government bodies and local authorities with business, major infrastructure and asset managers, as well as affected communities. 

For more information please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

Team CEP
13Mar 2019
European Commission publishes report on implementation of WFD and the Floods Directive

European Commission publishes new report on the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Floods Directive, which includes research input from CEP.

The overall assessment was led by WRc and CEP were part of the team assessing the first round of implementation of the Floods Directive (FD), coordinated by Milieu. The full report was published by the Commission last week.

The report provides an overview of the first Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs) produced by EU Member States and reported to the European Commission under the FD. The report focuses on progress so far and is accompanied by a series of Commission Staff Working Documents with both EU overviews and individual Member State assessments.

The FD, introduced in 2007 in response to the large floods across Europe in 2002 sets a framework for reducing risk of flood damage. The growing uncertainties surrounding flood risk management require continuous monitoring and adjustment of practices to ensure the lowest possible damages.

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

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30Jan 2019
New report by CEP on community resilience

NEW REPORT BY CEP EVALUATES A PILOT ON DEVELOPING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE IN CORNWALL

CEP‘s evaluation of Phase 1 of the Communities Prepared project has recently been published by Groundwork South.  Funded by the Big Lottery Reaching Communities Fund to support community resilience across the country, the project aims to help community groups to be better able to respond to, and recover from, flooding and other emergencies.  The pilot phase ran from February 2016 to February 2018 and was implemented by Groundwork South in partnership with Cornwall Community Flood Forum and Cornwall College and supported by national organisations like the Environment Agency.  

The aim of the pilot phase was to test the Community Resilience Toolkit prepared by Cornwall Community Flood Forum following the floods in Cornwall in 2010. CEP was commissioned to design and carry out a process and impact evaluation of the pilot across its two-year lifetime, drawing on information gathered from communities and stakeholders to provide learning which can be used in the Phase 2 application.

The evaluation report can be found at: Communities Prepared Pilot Evaluation

For more information contact Paula Orr (Technical Director)

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