Water

Making space for water
Research review on climate change

Project Manager

Karl Hardy (Defra)
Bill Donovan (Environment Agency)

Project Code

SD5

Timeframe

  • Autumn 2006 - Supplementary Guidance on Climate Change Impacts for Appraisal and Decision making.
  • Summer 2008 - Publication of new policy statements and guidance on Climate Change
  • Autumn/Winter 2008 - Updating of new policy statements

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 need for reviewing climate change guidance is becoming increasingly pressing. Defra previously provided advice on the treatment of climate change in appraisal in April 2003. 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 this was the new edition of the Treasury Green Book, which asked for the appraisal of whole life investment.  

Other needs for reviewing climate change guidance are driven by:

  • Updating Planning Policy Statement (PPS) 25 to include revised climate change guidance to assist flood risk assessment for new property developments in England and Wales
  • Increased public interest in exposure to climate change issues and Government response

In the future, the project will need to address how best to consider the outputs emerging from research within the joint Defra/Environment Agency R&D programme, the UK Climate Impacts Programme 2008 package (UKCIP08) and other wider sources (for example the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)). A description of the work planned and underway is shown below.  

Project Outputs to date

  • October 2006 - Supplementary Guidance published on the treatment of climate change impacts in flood and coastal erosion risk management appraisal and decision making along with an accompanying Q&A which covers for the recent IPCC 4th Assessment Report.
  • December 2006 - Recommended climate change allowances for PPS25 (Annex B) published, developed to tie in with the Supplementary Guidance note.

Future Outputs

Work is underway in Defra to represent flood and coastal erosion risk management interests in the UKCIP08 programme. Defra’s involvement relates to managing issues and influencing the programme to fully understand how the emerging science and deliverables will benefit flood and coastal erosion risk management. The UKCIP08 deliverables aim to provide users with:

  • increased resolution of climate change scenario data in space and time;
  • information presented in probabilistic terms;
  • an indication (not a prediction) of differences in conditions at regional and local levels.
Other work underway includes oversight of research and development projects that are managed in the Joint Defra/Environment Agency R&D programme. This science will have a bearing on our understanding of climate change impacts upon FCERM. Current research includes:

Page last modified: 2 August 2007
Page published: 2 August 2007

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs