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:

• Communities and FCERM research framework report

• Literature review report

• One-page summaries for each FCERM activity based on literature review findings

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:

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