Following a nation wide consultation, SEPA has published the National Flood Risk Assessment.

The National Flood Risk Assessment is the first step of the new risk-based approach to managing the impacts of flooding, introduced by the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009. It represents a significant milestone in our understanding of flood risk by bringing together the latest information on the sources and impacts of flooding across Scotland.

From the National Flood Risk Assessment we have found that one in 22 of all residential properties and one in 13 of all non-residential properties are at risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or heavy rainfall in urban areas. The outcomes of the National Flood Risk Assessment will help us to target actions for flood risk management in those areas where we can have the greatest impact.

SEPA has published the following documents to accompany the National Flood Risk Assessment:

• The National Flood Risk Assessment ( 774Kb): This document provides further detail on the National Flood Risk Assessment and how its outcomes support Flood Risk Management Planning.
• Flood Risk Management Strategies and Local Flood Risk Management Plans ( 463Kb): Provides detail on the content and production of Flood Risk Management Strategies and Local Flood Risk Management Plans.

>> View the National Flood Risk Assessment here

Freuchie is shown as being in an area at significant risk from flooding. Two locations within Freuchie are highlighted as “Flood Events” hotspots.

FFAG will be assessing the various documents and resources made available by SEPA.

SEPA has informed us of the next step in the recent consultation.

Flooding in Scotland: A consultation on Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts closed on Monday 15 August.  Thank you for taking time to consider and respond to this consultation.  SEPA has incorporated information and responses into the National Flood Risk Assessment and has reviewed Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts based on responses and accompanying information provided during the consultation. 

Today, SEPA is submitting proposals for Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts to Scottish Ministers.  This submission also includes a digest of the responses we received to the consultation and a summary of actions taken by SEPA.

A copy of the submission can be found on SEPA’s website.

Following SEPA’s submission to Scottish Ministers, a revised National Flood Risk Assessment will be published in December 2011.  The finalised set of Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts will be published by SEPA and the Scottish Government in December 2011.

If you have any queries relating to the Flooding in Scotland consultation or Ministerial submission, please contact SEPA’s flood risk management planning team, floodactconsultation@sepa.org.uk or call 0131 273 7262.

Lots of information to digest for many flood affected and at risk communities!

FFAG will be looking through the proposals to evaluate the impact of the submissions made by Fife Council and ourselves.

It is time for flood hit communities to check your area is recognised as an area at risk from flooding.

SEPA is conducting the following consultation:

Flooding in Scotland: A consultation on Potentially Vulnerable Areas and Local Plan Districts, seeks your views on how the National Flood Risk Assessment identifies areas for flood risk management planning and was launched by the Minister for the Environment, Stewart Stevenson, at the Braid Burn in Edinburgh. Your responses will help us to identify those areas in Scotland where public bodies should focus their efforts.

The consultation can be found here.

Freuchie belongs to the “Tay Estuary and Montrose Basin” Local Plan District.

From Wikipedia:

The normalcy bias refers to a mental state people enter when facing a disaster. It causes people to underestimate both the possibility of a disaster occurring and its possible effects. This often results in situations where people fail to adequately prepare for a disaster, and on a larger scale, the failure of the government to include the populace in its disaster preparations. The assumption that is made in the case of the normalcy bias is that since a disaster never has occurred then it never will occur. It also results in the inability of people to cope with a disaster once it occurs. People with a normalcy bias have difficulties reacting to something they have not experienced before. People also tend to interpret warnings in the most optimistic way possible, seizing on any ambiguities to infer a less serious situation.^[

Flood survivors may well recognise this in themselves and organisations responsible for disaster planning, property development and flood authorities. It is especially dangerous in people and organisations after a flood event for it may well result in little or no preparedness for future flooding.

Hopefully this post will assist people and organisation to recognise this state and do something about flooding in your area before it is too late.

Reading the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 doesn’t easily clear up all the timescales for delivery of the various steps required to comply with the Act and ultimately when it is liable to bring real world flood prevention and protection measures to fruition. Surely there must be an easier way to find out the deliverables timescale rather than reading through and deciphering the Act? Yes, there is now. The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act Annual Report to Parliament 2009 has recently been published on the Scottish Government website, a report that appears to provide some of the outstanding answers being sought by flood survivors.

Date: 2016

Milestone: Publish implementation plans for delivering all measures set out in local flood risk management plans.

Lead: Local authorities

It is slightly alarming to see it could take until 2016 before local authorities publish their implementation plans. Gulp! Freuchie will undoubtedly have been hit by more flooding before this happens.

The intention is to lay a second commencement order in 2010 to bring into force Part 4 and the remaining sections of Part 6. In commencing Part 4, regulations setting out the transitional arrangements for transfer from the current statutory process for Flood Protection Schemes under the 1961 Act to the new process set out in the FRM Act will also be laid.

Part 4 of the Act relates to local authority powers to manage flood risk. Basically the local authorities gain all manner of new and strengthened powers and responsibilities for flooding in 2010.

In response to the long standing concerns surrounding the existing statutory process for Flood Protection Schemes, we are keen to allow local authorities to utilise the benefits of the new system as early as possible and without the need to go through a lengthy and complex period of transition.

Provision has been made to deliver flood improvements in a more timely fashion, but this will depend on your local authority pushing things along. In the meantime we need to push ahead under the old legislation and transitional arrangements – basically the outgoing regime that is no longer fit for purpose.

From 1 April 2008, funding of flood protection and coast protection schemes is not identified separately but the previous ring-fenced grant provision of £42 million in 2007-08 is rolled up in the General Capital Grant which is distributed to local authorities as part of the 3-year local government finance settlement covering the period 2008-11. The decision to substantially reduce ring-fencing was welcomed by COSLA and local government, and had no impact on the level of capital grant funding available to them. For 2009-10, local government was provided with a general capital grant of £462.64 million. The Scottish Government is continuing to deliver on its commitment to increase local authorities’ share of the Scottish Budget.

The report skirts around the issue of whether there has been increased spending on flood prevention since the change from ring fencing of funds to the Single Outcome Agreement. Going forward, a major worry has to be the potential for underfunding of flooding at local authority level. Councillors may well decide flooding is not a priority as the austerity cuts start to bite. Flood affected communities will have to lobby very hard to ensure councillors don’t make it impossible for flood officers to resource flood prevention and protection projects. Let’s hope we don’t hear Anne Robinson muttering, “Flooding… you are the weakest link!”

The Scottish Flood Forum (SFF) was set up in October 2008, with funding from the Scottish Government and the feedback received, from local authorities, community councils and individuals who have been flooded, on the services provided by SFF is very positive.

Freuchie Flood Action Group has the highest praise for the hard work and advice of Paul Hendy from the Scottish Flood Forum (SFF). We were the first flood action group to work with the SFF, a partnership that ensured Freuchie was well known by everyone that matters in the world of flooding! The commitment outlined in the report to extend the services available from the SFF is fabulous news for flood affected communities.

Elsewhere in the report, ongoing research and projects using Natural Flood Management (NFM) are mentioned. Developments in the flood warning service are welcome, but only become useful in Fife once the projects are rolled out Scotland wide.  The changes in areas of responsibility for the local authorities, Scottish Water, SEPA and other stakeholders are touched upon. A selection of large capital flood projects throughout Scotland are dealt with, but it is interesting to note the lack of information on any Fife projects currently underway!

Flood action groups and flood survivors will take a mixed bag from this report. In general it demonstrates good progress in dealing with flooding in Scotland.

Technorati Tags: Fife, flood, Flood Risk Management, flooding, Freuchie, Freuchie Flood Action Group, Scottish Flood Forum, Scottish Government, SFF

SNIFFER (Scottish & Northern Ireland Forum For Environmental Research) has recently published their findings into “Differential Social Impacts of Climate Change in the UK”. More information, including the final report, can be found HERE.

Technorati Tags: climate change, SNIFFER