Local Data and Evidence – Natural Flood Management
Organisation: National Flood Forum
Location: National
Type: Case Studies & Projects
Link: Visit Website
Local data and evidence on Natural Flood Management is key to engaging with both the public and local businesses. It is also vital to providing the detail needed to target, deliver and evaluate projects at the local catchment and community level.
Flood Action Community Groups
A Flood Action Group is made up of a core of local people who act as a representative voice for their wider community.
They work voluntarily to reduce flood risk by:
- Identifying key issues;
- Mapping out their own flood plan;
- Setting their own agenda and working in partnership with the agencies and authorities that manage flood risk.
First and foremost, flooding affects people, so people need to be at the very heart of flood risk management. Working in partnership with your local flood action group is key to delivering flood risk solutions that benefit the local community.
Flood Action Groups can be a considerable driver of local action, and the knowledge of local people can be invaluable when designing and delivering NFM schemes.
The National Flood Forum support flood risk communities and provide a series of ‘How to guides’ via their Community Hub.
Section 19 Flood Investigation Reports
Under Section 19 of the Flood and Water Management Act (2010) Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFA), have a statutory duty to produce Flood Investigation Reports for areas affected by flooding. This includes a local investigation about what, when, why, and how the flooding took place.
The Flood Investigation Report should outline recommendations and actions that various organisations and risk management authorities can do to minimise flood risk in affected areas. Once agreed, the reports can be used by communities and agencies as the basis for developing future plans to help make areas more resilient to flooding in the future.
You should be able to access recent S19 reports for your catchment via your Lead Local Flood Authority’s (typically a county council) website.
Sharing Platforms for Local Evidence and Data
Efficient and transparent sharing of data and information between all of the organisations and communities involved in flood risk management planning and delivery is critical to ensuring that all partners are fully engaged in the process and can contribute fully.
There are a growing number of ArcGIS Online templates which have been developed by the CaBA Support Group, in collaboration with various CaBA partnerships, and Strategic Flood Partnerships, that can readily be used and adapted by any partnership.
Below are a couple of examples – the templates for these and others are available to copy, please contact us for more information.
Have you found a good way of sharing information with your partners?
Please let us know what works well in your catchment – we’d love to hear from you and share with the wider network.
The Cumbria Strategic Flood Partnership
The Cumbria Strategic Flood Partnership have used ArcGIS Online to create a web-based platform to share updates, information and data between partners and communities in Cumbria.
The portal aims to increase transparency about the work of the partnership with communities. It provides access to S19 Flood Investigation Reports, modelled community at-risk data, information on over 1000 potential flood risk management options currently under appraisal and includes a calendar of upcoming meetings and events, minutes of the board meetings, community newsletters, knowledge sharing.
The site also links to more detailed individual catchment portals for each of the four major catchments in Cumbria where people can find out more detailed catchment specific information and data.
Irwell Catchment Evidence Review Tool
This tool has been designed to support the Irwell Catchment Partnership’s integrated catchment planning process of reviewing evidence and turning this into a funded action plan.
The Irwell Catchment Partnership has developed a catchment ‘story map’ to help partners interrogate evidence and turn it into action on the ground.
The story map, along with the partnership’s vision and terms of reference, will serve as the overall Catchment Management Plan, driving evidence-based delivery to further improve the catchment.
The tool has been developed through EU LIFE IP Natural Course by GIS experts within The Rivers Trust, who worked closely with the Irwell Catchment Partnership and its host organisation, Groundwork MSSTT.
Local evidence - identifying priority places
The best way to win funding for your partnerships’s projects is to identify how your actions will contribute towards the delivery of other organisation’s priorities. The sources of data and information below can help you understand current strategic flood risk management priorities, identify synergies and opportunities to deliver multiple benefits, and build an evidence-based buisness case for your projects.
Communities at Risk Modelling
In many parts of the country the Environment Agency have undertaken Communities at Risk Modelling to identify those communities that have a high number of properties within the modelled National Flood Risk Assessment (NaFRA) risk categories of ‘Significant’ (the chance of flooding in any year is greater than 1.3 per cent (1 in 75 chance)) or ‘Moderate'(the chance of flooding in any year is 1.3 per cent (1 in 75 chance) or less, but greater than 0.5 per cent).
This dataset is designed to highlight places where a high no. of properties and businesses are located within the NaFRA (National Flood Risk Assessment) categories of ‘Significant’ or ‘Moderate’. You may be able to access this information by contacting you catchment co-ordinator.
NB: The NaFRA results used to produce these hot spots are based on modelled risk of flooding from rivers and the sea and do not consider flooding from any other sources.
Countryside Stewardship
Countryside Stewardship provides financial incentives for land managers to look after their environment through activities including flood risk management; conservation; woodland creation and management and reducing water pollution from agriculture.
The funding is highly competitive and favours projects addressing regional priorities and delivering multiple objectives.
More information about the scheme is available HERE.
See which CS options can help reduce the impact of flooding HERE and access the CS Grant Finder Tool HERE.
You can also find out more details about the Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) River Basin District Strategy for your region HERE.
Local Plans
Local plans set out a vision and a framework for the future development of the area, addressing needs and opportunities in relation to housing, the economy, community facilities and infrastructure – as well as a basis for safeguarding the environment, adapting to climate change and securing good design.
You should be able to access loal plans for your catchment by contacting your local planning authoritiy or via the planning pages of their website.
These plans may help identify areas where planned new development or re-development may offer opportunities for delivering NFM. They may also help identify areas where NFM could help deliver multiple societal benefits for recreation and health and wellbeing.
Water Company Drainage Plans
Water Company Drainage Plans can provide details on where water companies need to address capacity issues related to excess surface runoff from hard surfaces entering the sewer system during heavy rainfall.
These plans could help identify joint opportunities for delivery of NFM and water quality solutions where, for example, combined sewer overflows are an issue.
These pages are supported by the Flood Resilient Areas by multi-layEr Safety (FRAMES) project under the Interreg North Sea Region VB programme, funded by the European Regional Development Fund. For more information please visit http://northsearegion.eu/frames/