Flooding Summit - Synopsis of Speakers
National Flood Forum – Paul Hendy (Project Director)
Introduction to the perspective of the victims of flooding.
Scottish Environment Protection Agency – Dr Chris Spray (Director of
Environmental Science)
SEPA’s vision is for the development of a Single Scottish vision of Sustainable Flood
Risk Management, owned and delivered by the key partners.
To achieve this will require:
 A Catchment approach to Sustainable Flood Risk Management – recognising
the importance of connectivity between sources, pathways and receptors in
flood management, mixing hard and soft solutions;
 Partnership delivery - backed up by clear responsibilities and delivery
mechanisms
Forestry Commission - Dr Thomas R Nisbet (Head of the Water, Soil & Heritage
Research Group within the Environmental & Human Sciences Division of
Forest Research)
Sustainable flood management is increasingly looking to the role of catchment-scale
land use in alleviating downstream flooding. Woodland presents a number of
opportunities depending on its location within catchments.
One way that woodland can attenuate flooding is through the greater water use by
trees, although the overall impact on the generation of flood flows is most marked at
the headwater level. Another way relies on the ‘sponge effect’, where improved
infiltration (resulting from the targeted planting of sensitive soils, or the use of downslope woodland buffers) could attenuate rapid run-off at the local scale. Finally, and
most significantly, the greater 'hydraulic roughness' associated with riparian and
floodplain woodland can aid the retention and delay the passage of flood waters,
potentially assisting downstream flood defence in larger catchments. This paper
examines each of these opportunities and considers whether woodland can make a
significant contribution to tackling future flooding as part of a whole-catchment
approach to sustainable flood management. It advocates the selection of several
significant, flood prone catchments to model and trial the impact of land use measures
in mitigating future flood risks. Through its Forest Research, incentives and direct
land management capabilities Forestry Commission Scotland is well placed to support
that process.
Scottish Water - Geoff Aitkenhead (Asset Management Director)
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An outline of Scottish Water’s responsibilities for addressing flooding from
sewers.
How this links in with other causes of flooding; highlighting that whilst the
different organisational responsibilities for flooding are well understood the
picture can appear very confused during a major flooding incident.
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Working in partnership to address flooding issues (GSDP).
Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems and Surface Water Management Plans.
Association of British Insurers - Jane Milne (Climate Change Leader)
This summer's floods ostensibly occurred due to exceptional rainfall, similar in
intensity to events experienced in the late nineteenth century. Much of the flooding
happened in areas where we might have expected problems, but was often due to
drainage problems and overland flow as much as river over-topping. The cost of the
event exceed that predicted by insurance models, and to that extent may be a foretaste
of what climate change will bring by the middle of the 21st century. It casts doubts
on whether we understand current flood risks, let alone future levels. Insurance will
not be sustainable unless risks are reduced to well below current sewer design
standards, urban drainage capacities and river defences. Whole catchment approaches
are needed with every available policy lever being brought into play.
Environment Agency – Robin Bailey (Regional Flood Risk Manager, North East
Region)
Over 400 million tonnes of rain fell in a 48 hour period across Yorkshire in late June
2007, resulting in flooding of over 25,000 properties. The presentation will explain
the impact of the floods, the roles of the Agency and others, and the combined
response to the flood. It will also set out issues likely to be raised by the review called
for by government.
Glasgow City Council - Sandy Gillon (Group Manager)
As demonstrated by the events in July 2002, Glasgow has a significant flooding
problem. However, through an integrated approach with its stakeholder partners
Glasgow City Council is developing an innovative approach to address this challenge.
The Metropolitan Glasgow’s Strategic Drainage Plan (MGSDP) seeks to align the
priority programmes of both Scottish Water and local authorities to provide a
sustainable approach to flooding, development constraints and environmental damage.
This presentation will outline the MGSDP methodology and the implications that
current flooding legislation has on its implementation.
Scottish Government - Nick Evans (Principal Planner, Planning Directorate
Planning and Flooding)
The central purpose of the planning policy for flooding is to prevent further
development which would have a significant probability of being affected by flooding
or which would increase the probability of flooding elsewhere. Scottish Planning
Policy (SPP) 7 – Planning and Flooding and its supporting Planning Advice Note
(PAN 69) – Planning and Building Standards Advice on Flooding set out a wide
ranging response to the threat of flooding. The SPP promotes Flood Liaison and
Advice Groups as a way to engage with many of the key parties and refers to the
important responsibilities of developers. Central to the SPP is the Risk Framework
which characterises areas according to their annual probability of flooding and
describes the planning response. It explains that such probabilities should be taken as
best estimates and other factors such as depth and flow have to be taken into account.
Built development on functional flood plains is not supported though in some
circumstances, raising the level of the land can provide a solution if compensatory
storage capacity is provided. Building design, construction and drainage can reduce
the effects of flooding and separately to planning the building standards require that
there will not be a threat to the building or the health of occupants from flooding.
WWF Scotland - Mike Donaghy (Freshwater Policy Officer)
Maintaining Scotland’s lead: how we can involve land-users in sustainable flood
management - Farmers and foresters can make an important contribution to the
achievement of sustainable flood management. Present flood legislation makes it
difficult to include those sectors in that process. Other legislation contradicts the aims
of sustainable flood management. We need to further progress our approach to flood
management in Scotland. This will require the development of new processes, roles
and administrative structures to achieve sustainable flood management on the ground.
The Flood Bill offers an unmissable opportunity for Scotland to modernise, simplify
and integrate our approach to lowering flood risk to communities.