Climate change science and flood and coastal erosion risk management
Forthcoming Events
- November 2008 - Launch of UKCIP08 Probabilistic Projections
- Winter/Spring 2009 - Updating of new policy statements on climate change impacts to flood and coastal erosion risk management
Introduction
The Government is seeking to deliver a more holistic, sustainable and long term approach to managing flood and coastal erosion risk through the Making Space for Water programme, with the implementation of Outcome Measures, Catchment Flood Management Plans, Shoreline Management Plans and other policy guidance as vehicles to deliver Defra’s policies into practice. Climate change relating to these vehicles is becoming a key issue to manage, both at policy and delivery levels, and requires careful handling to ensure that policy and practice remains holistic and sustainable.
The priority for climate change policy within flood risk management is to best understand the opportunities, limitations and use of the forthcoming UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP08) 08 climate projects, due in November 2008.
IPCC, UKCIP and New Developments
Because of advances in science and new developments such as from UKCIP and the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the need for reviewing climate change guidance is becoming increasingly pressing. Defra previously provided advice on the treatment of climate change in appraisal both in April 2003, and more recently in October 2006. Since then, operating authorities have been encouraged to consider projects and assets over the whole life of the assets, which often relate to time horizons of over 50 years (the previous time-period), and sometimes over 100 years.
A driver for considering up to 100 year timeframe was the new edition of the Treasury Green Book, which asked for the appraisal of whole life investment. Another driver is in the need to consider the longer term adaptation challenges to how we manage flood and coastal erosion risks, and this is a key aspect of Flood Management's Adaptation and Resilience programme.
In the future, the policy will need to address how best to consider the outputs emerging from research within the joint Defra/Environment Agency R&D programme, the UKCIP08 package and other wider sources. Also see Defra’s webpage on managing UKCIP08.
PPS25 Development and Flood Risk and Supporting Practice Guide
Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 25 was launched in 2006 followed by the practice guide in 2008. Both documents refer to Defra’s Supplementary Guidance to Climate Change of October 2006, and includes revised climate change guidance to assist flood risk assessment for new property developments in England and Wales
Climate Change Adaptation
Flood Management is working closely with Defra’s wider work on adapting to climate change, which is building an Adaptation Policy Framework. This work is instrumental in England’s response to climate change, and provides an important context to our policy work on climate change and adaptation in flood and coastal erosion risk management.
Other Work by Partners and Stakeholders
The Environment Agency is funding significant work in the field of climate change research, For flood and coastal erosion risk management, the Environment Agency’s work on Thames Estuary 2100 is instrumental in both modelling science and on using managed adaptive approaches to tackle sea level rise and future surge.
The Association of British Insurers commissioned research into the losses that would arise from climate change impacts on the east Coast, and this is provided on their website.
Climate Change impacts are having a significant impact on our stakeholders, particularly on the East Coast. Both Coastal Concern Action Group and and Suffolk Coast Against Realignment are active in raising the profile of the issues faced.
Ongoing Research
- Regionalised Impacts of Climate Change on Flood Flows
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Translating UKCIP08 Climate Change Projections Into Policy and Practice (Environment Agency’s Climate Change Programme)
Links
- Defra - Supplementary Guidance on Climate Change Impacts for Appraisal and Decision Making
- MCCIP Report Card on marine climate impacts, summarising latest science and policy thinking on tackling marine challenges.
- Pitt report and the updated Review of the Foresight Future Flooding Report
- Thames Estuary Partnership
Page last
modified: 23 July 2008
Page published: 23 July 2008