scholarly journals Barriers to mainstream adoption of catchment-wide natural flood management: a transdisciplinary problem-framing study of delivery practice

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 6239-6259
Author(s):  
Thea Wingfield ◽  
Neil Macdonald ◽  
Kimberley Peters ◽  
Jack Spees
Keyword(s):  
Delivery System ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Management Technique ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
The Uk

Abstract. Natural flood management (NFM) is the name given to nature-based solutions (NBS) for flood management in the UK. It is a holistic flood management technique that employs natural hydrological processes, through the installation of interventions, to slow the flow of water, creating a landscape-scale flood management system. Despite widespread interest and supporting policy from governments and non-profit organisations, NFM, as yet, has not been widely adopted as a mainstream flood management technique. A small number of academic studies examining perceived barriers to NFM adoption have identified a variety of individual factors as being responsible. It is commonly accepted that flood risk management broadly, and NFM specifically, are complex, challenges of interacting physical and human parameters, and that academic, institutional and policy divisions are rarely sympathetic to embracing these complexities. A transdisciplinary problem-framing study in conjunction with professionals experienced in the delivery of NFM projects in the UK aimed to capture these multifaceted parameters of flood management and strategic delivery at a landscape scale using group concept mapping, a systems approach to identify conceptual convergence. This policy-delivery impasse was further explored by quantifying the relative importance of individual barriers and conceptual groupings from the perspective of two different practitioner groups (flood risk managers and conservation practitioners). The results demonstrate that the NFM delivery system can be grouped into seven interacting elements, policy and regulation, politics, public perception, cross-cutting issues, funding, technical knowledge and evidence, of which each has a varying number of barriers that limit NFM uptake. Opinions differ as to the importance of these individual barriers; however, when considering the system broadly we identify that the institutional and social barriers are perceived as the most important, whilst technical knowledge and evidence are the areas of least concern. This paper aims to promote NBS flood management delivery in the UK and globally by generating, structuring and representing the multifaceted and multilevel NFM delivery system at a local level to evidence adaptive decision making at regional, national and global levels. Through problem structuring and an increased understanding and awareness of the structure and network of linking elements and perceived differences of practitioner groups that influence the system of delivery, steps can be taken towards solutions that are socially, scientifically and practically robust.

scholarly journals Barriers to mainstream adoption of catchment wide Natural Flood Management, a transdisciplinary problem framing study of delivery practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thea A. J. Wingfield ◽  
Neil Macdonald ◽  
Kimberley Peters ◽  
Jack Spees
Keyword(s):  
Delivery System ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Public Perception ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Landscape Scale ◽  
Management Technique ◽  
Technical Knowledge ◽  
Problem Framing ◽  
The Uk

Abstract. Natural Flood Management (NFM) is the name given to Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for Flood Management in the UK. It is a holistic flood management technique that employs natural hydrological processes, through the instillation of interventions, to slow the flow of water, creating a landscape scale flood management system. Despite widespread interest and supporting policy from governments and non-profit organisations NFM, as yet, has not been widely adopted as a mainstream flood management technique. A small number of academic studies examining perceived barriers to NFM adoption have identified a variety of individual factors as being responsible. It is commonly accepted that flood risk management broadly, and NFM specifically, are complex, challenges of interacting physical and human parameters and that academic, institutional and policy divisions are rarely sympathetic to embracing these complexities. A transdisciplinary problem framing study in conjunction with professionals experienced in the delivery of NFM projects in the UK aimed to capture these multifaceted parameters of flood management and strategic delivery at a landscape scale using Group Concept Mapping, a systems approach to identify conceptual convergence. This policy-delivery impasse was further explored by quantifying the relative importance of individual barriers and conceptual groupings from the perspective of two different practitioner groups (flood risk managers and conservation practitioners). The results demonstrate that the NFM delivery system can be grouped into seven interacting elements: policy and regulation, politics, public perception, cross-cutting issues, funding, technical knowledge and evidence, of which each have a varying number of barriers that limit NFM uptake. Opinions differs as to the importance of these individual barriers, however when considering the system broadly we identify that the institutional and social barriers are perceived as the most important, whilst technical knowledge and evidence are the areas of least concern. This paper aims to promote NBS flood management delivery in the UK and globally by generating, structuring and representing the multifaceted and multilevel NFM delivery system at a local level to evidence adaptive decision making at a regional, national and global level. Through problem structuring and an increased understanding and awareness of the structure and network of linking elements and perceived differences of practitioner groups that influence the system of delivery, steps can be taken towards solutions that are socially, scientifically and practically robust.

scholarly journals The evolution of climate change guidance for fluvial flood risk management in England

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicholas S Reynard ◽  
Alison L Kay ◽  
Molly Anderson ◽  
Bill Donovan ◽  
Caroline Duckworth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Adaptation Measures ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Impacts Of Climate Change

Floods are one of the biggest natural hazards to society, and there is increasing concern about the potential impacts of climate change on flood occurrence and magnitude. Furthermore, flood risk is likely to increase in the future not just through increased flood occurrence, but also through socio-economic changes, such as increasing population. The extent to which adaptation measures can offset this increased risk will depend on the level of future climate change, but there exists an urgent need for information on the potential impacts of climate change on floods, so that these can be accounted for by flood management authorities and local planners aiming to reduce flood risk. Agencies across the UK have been pro-active in providing such guidance for many years and in refining it as the science of climate change and hydrological impacts has developed. The history of this guidance for fluvial flood risk in England is presented and discussed here, including the recent adoption of a regional risk-based approach. Such an approach could be developed and applied to flood risk management in other countries, and to other sectors affected by climate change.

A Modelling Tool for Assessing Flood Risk

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
D.J. Balmforth ◽  
P. Dibben
Keyword(s):  
Asset Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Sewer System ◽  
Individual Property ◽  
Urban Flood ◽  
Flow Through ◽  
Water Companies ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Developed World

Managing urban flooding remains one of the key challenges for the operators of sewerage systems in the developed world. In the UK it has been an important area of investment over the last five-year asset management period, and will be even higher on the agenda for the next five. Although modern software tools are extremely sophisticated in estimating the probability of sewer surcharging and surface flooding, the science of assessing individual property flood risk is still in its infancy. The authors have developed a flood risk tool to identify the consequential effects of sewer system overloading in terms of individual property flood risk. This is post-processing software using the output from conventional modelling software. The tool recognises two separate causes of property flooding: backing up flow through connecting drains when sewers are surcharged, and the conveyance of flood flows over the surface. The severity of each is combined with return period to give a flood risk score for each property within a catchment. The tool has been trialled by UK water companies as a proactive way of managing flood risk and has been shown to offer significant advantages over traditional methods of urban flood management.

scholarly journals Downpour! – Flood risk communication through interactive immersive street games

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jana Wendler ◽  
Emma L. Shuttleworth
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Environmental Science ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Storm Events ◽  
Interactive Games ◽  
Active Involvement ◽  
The Uk

In this paper, we discuss the potential role of immersive interactive games in public engagement with environmental science, in this case flood risk management. Recent high magnitude storm events in the UK have fuelled great public interest in flooding. However, there remains an apparent mismatch between the scientific voice of flooding research and the wider public discourse, which we argue games may be able to address. Downpour! is a street game that casts players as flood risk advisers in a fictional flooding scenario. Players work in teams to respond to an immediate crisis and make longer-term decisions about mitigation through a series of encounters with actors, films, puzzles and treasure hunts. The game was created by a street game designer in collaboration with film-makers, environmental scientists and public institutions, with performances at the Manchester Science Festival and the Festival of Social Science 2016. Based on observations and responses from these events, we discuss how the game fostered understanding of, and engagement with, decision-making in flood risk management. Games offer people the agency to experiment with decisions in a safe space. As a result, we found that players begin to independently interrogate both scientific and political dimensions of flood management. The immersive nature of a street game further creates an emotional connection with the issues, which has the potential for triggering active involvement in flood-related efforts. We conclude by reflecting on the process behind the game creation, commenting on the strengths and difficulties of innovative collaborations between environmental scientists and creative practitioners.

scholarly journals Mainstreaming natural flood management: A proposed research framework derived from a critical evaluation of current knowledge

2021 ◽  
pp. 030913332199729
Author(s):  
Nicola Ellis ◽  
Karen Anderson ◽  
Richard Brazier
Keyword(s):  
Flood Risk ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Spatial Scales ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Management Method ◽  
The Uk

Natural flood management (NFM), or working with natural processes, is a growing flood risk management method in the UK, Europe and worldwide. However, unlike the current dominant technical flood management, it lacks an established evidence base of flood risk parameters. This lack of evidence base can limit the uptake of NFM as a flood management method. This paper critically evaluates examples of NFM and wider relevant literature in order to identify NFM knowledge gaps and suggest how to overcome these. The UK is used as a microcosm of different environments for diverse examples. The sections include: land cover, land management, landscape interactions and trade-offs, evaluating the wider benefits of NFM and, finally, scaling from plot to catchment. This concludes in a suggested framework for a new approach to NFM research, which encompasses spatial scales, interactions and trade-offs of NFM and consistency of reporting results. Widening the NFM empirical evidence base should be seen as an opportunity for a new approach to flood research through exploring new habitats and new flood resilience methods.

Offline Storage Areas as a Natural Flood Management intervention: Evidence from the Evenlode catchment, UK

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Bishop ◽  
Gareth Old ◽  
Ponnambalam Rameshwaran ◽  
Andrew Wade ◽  
David Gasca-Tucker ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flood Risk ◽  
Monitoring Network ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Peak Discharge ◽  
Storm Events ◽  
Capital Costs ◽  
Management Intervention ◽  
Storage Area ◽  
South East England ◽  
The Uk

<p>Catchment-based approaches that work with natural processes for fluvial flood risk reduction are currently the subject of much interest both internationally and in the UK, where they are known as <em>Natural Flood Management</em> (NFM). NFM schemes typically seek to replicate, restore, or enhance natural features of the environment so as to store and/or slow floodwaters during storm events. Benefits over traditional hard-engineered flood management approaches include reduced capital costs and carbon emissions, and they can deliver positive outcomes for both water quality and biodiversity. Despite a small number of studies indicating their potential value, the further uptake of NFM schemes is limited by a lack of empirical evidence demonstrating their effectiveness.</p><p>We present results from an intensive monitoring network within a tributary (catchment area 3.4 km<sup>2</sup>) of the Littlestock Brook, a<strong> </strong>lowland agricultural catchment within South East England that presents a flood risk to the downstream village of Milton-under-Wychwood. The catchment forms part of the first NFM scheme of its kind within the River Thames basin, currently being delivered in partnership by the Evenlode Catchment Partnership and the Environment Agency as part of a five-year project (2016-2021). Precipitation, stream discharge, and water level within eight offline storage areas have been continuously monitored since September 2019. High resolution topographic surveys of each storage area enable filling, storing, and drainage dynamics to be determined and compared with downstream hydrograph metrics. A series of storm events between October 2019 and February 2020 have provided a unique dataset for investigating the performance of the NFM scheme.</p><p>Data from four storms with estimated peak-discharge return periods ranging from 2.7 to 5.5 years demonstrate the potential for reducing peak discharge. During the largest storm, flood volume across the peak of the hydrograph was reduced by 22%, with 64% of total storage capacity remaining unused. Variations in the filling, storing, and drainage characteristics of each storage area have consequences for the overall effectiveness for reducing downstream flood risk and these will be discussed.</p>

Monitoring the efficacy of Natural Flood Management structures on flow attenuation and flood risk reduction

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tamsin Lockwood ◽  
Jim Freer ◽  
Katerina Michaelides ◽  
Gemma Coxon ◽  
Tom Richardson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Reduction ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Woody Debris ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Mitigation Strategies ◽  
Water Release ◽  
Flood Risk Reduction ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Online Storage ◽  
Flow Attenuation

<p>Land use and management changes and landscape modifications, including urbanisation and agricultural intensification, have resulted in significant increases in flood risk across the UK in recent decades. To combat this, a shift towards catchment-based flood risk management has seen a marked rise in Natural Flood Management (NFM) schemes applied across the UK. These schemes largely represent mitigation strategies that work with natural processes to restore and augment hydrological and morphological catchment features for enhancing downstream flood resilience through the slowing, storing and filtering of runoff and flow. This has been implemented through the introduction of woody debris, afforestation of floodplains and runoff attenuation features. However, despite growing evidence highlighting their potential benefits, the function of these structures in the landscape and their effectiveness for flood risk reduction is still highly uncertain.</p><p> </p><p>To address this knowledge gap, this study evaluates the effectiveness of a range of larger-scale floodplain and in-channel NFM features for flow attenuation and flood risk reduction.  To achieve this, a two-year field campaign was conducted in Somerset, South West England, involving the collection of continuous discharge, storage volume and local rainfall data at four sites in the Tone and Parrett catchments. The sites contained NFM structures including offline and online storage ponds and in-channel woody debris. Using these data, filling, storing and spilling capabilities were characterised through the utilisation of field-scale DEMs from Structure from Motion (SfM) and manual surveys. Storm events were separated, and key hydrograph characteristics analysed, to determine the effect of NFM structures on high flow events and the potential for flow attenuation.</p><p> </p><p>The results indicate an increase in storage and flow attenuation as a result of the inclusion of NFM. Increases in flow lag time downstream of in-channel features were identified, relative to an upstream gauge. Longer recession limbs were also recorded downstream of storage ponds, illustrating the buffering influence of upstream structures and the consequential slowed water release downstream. Floodplain-based storage structures were found to only function optimally during the largest events, where pond filling could occur directly from the channel and flow is temporarily stored on the floodplain. These results will provide vital evidence for both local and national NFM applications.</p>

scholarly journals Characterising Local Knowledge across the Flood Risk Management Cycle: A Case Study of Southern Malawi

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Šakić Trogrlić ◽  
Grant Wright ◽  
Melanie Duncan ◽  
Marc van den Homberg ◽  
Adebayo Adeloye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Local Knowledge ◽  
Flood Risk ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Flood Risk Management ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Complex Knowledge

People possess a creative set of strategies based on their local knowledge (LK) that allow them to stay in flood-prone areas. Stakeholders involved with local level flood risk management (FRM) often overlook and underutilise this LK. There is thus an increasing need for its identification, documentation and assessment. Based on qualitative research, this paper critically explores the notion of LK in Malawi. Data was collected through 15 focus group discussions, 36 interviews and field observation, and analysed using thematic analysis. Findings indicate that local communities have a complex knowledge system that cuts across different stages of the FRM cycle and forms a component of community resilience. LK is not homogenous within a community, and is highly dependent on the social and political contexts. Access to LK is not equally available to everyone, conditioned by the access to resources and underlying causes of vulnerability that are outside communities’ influence. There are also limits to LK; it is impacted by exogenous processes (e.g., environmental degradation, climate change) that are changing the nature of flooding at local levels, rendering LK, which is based on historical observations, less relevant. It is dynamic and informally triangulated with scientific knowledge brought about by development partners. This paper offers valuable insights for FRM stakeholders as to how to consider LK in their approaches.

scholarly journals Social Polarisation at the Local Level: A Four-Town Comparative Study on the Challenges of Politicising Inequality in Britain

Sociology ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003803852097559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Insa Koch ◽  
Mark Fransham ◽  
Sarah Cant ◽  
Jill Ebrey ◽  
Luna Glucksberg ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Comparative Study ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Community Analysis ◽  
Common Features ◽  
Social Polarisation ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Missing Middle ◽  
Insight Into

This article examines how intensifying inequality in the UK plays out at a local level, in order to bring out the varied ways polarisation takes place ‘on the ground’. It brings a community analysis buttressed by quantitative framing to the study of economic, spatial and relational polarisation in four towns in the UK. We distinguish differing dynamics of ‘elite-based’ polarisation (in Oxford and Tunbridge Wells) and ‘poverty-based’ polarisation (in Margate and Oldham). Yet there are also common features. Across the towns, marginalised communities express a sense of local belonging. But tensions between social groups also remain strong and all towns are marked by a weak or ‘squeezed middle’. We argue that the weakness of intermediary institutions, including but not limited to the ‘missing middle’, and capable of bridging gaps between various social groups, provides a major insight into both the obstacles to, and potential solutions for, re-politicising inequality today.

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