CEP undertaking evaluation of Property Flood Resilience Grant Scheme for Defra

CEP are leading on a new project for Defra to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) grant scheme

CEP, in partnership with University of the West of England (UWE) Bristol and Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), Middlesex University, has been awarded a project by DEFRA to carry out a process and impact evaluation of the Property Flood Resilience (PFR) repair scheme to help understand the effect of the scheme on resilience in flood affected council areas.

The PFR repair scheme is activated following severe weather events that impact multiple local authorities, lastly in February 2020 and November 2019. All eligible flooded properties have access to grants through the PFR scheme. To be eligible a council area has to have more than 25 properties flooded.

This project will evaluate how the PFR repair scheme’s delivery process has worked and the impact this has had in areas affected by flooding. The two key questions are:

• How effective are processes employed for delivering the Government Property Flooding Resilience (PFR) repair schemes in 2019 and 2020?

  • What benefits has the scheme delivered?

  • What improvements (if any) could be made?

• What is the impact of the scheme in council areas that have received PFR grants and have flooded since?

  • In these areas, did the resilience measures make a measurable difference and if so, how

  • How does this contrast with areas where flooding has occurred, but PFR has not been utilised?

  • Has the scheme contributed to increase the uptake of PFR?

The project started in August 2021 and will run until August 2022.

For more information, please contact Clare Twigger- Ross (Project Director, CEP) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project manager, CEP).

CEP to deliver a new project on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

CEP has been awarded a new project by Defra to analyse responses to a call for evidence on local factors in managing flooding and coastal erosion risk and property flood resilience

Collingwood Environmental Planning (CEP), in partnership with Middlesex Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC), has been commissioned by Defra to analyse responses to the Call for Evidence on Local factors in managing flood and coastal erosion risk and Property Flood Resilience (PFR) and the responses to a consultation on Amendments to the Flood Re scheme.

The Call for Evidence will explore:

• how we can strengthen our flood and coastal defence investment programme through better assessment of local circumstances, including how potential changes to the funding formula could provide further benefit to frequently flooded communities.

• PFR, which includes measures people can take to help reduce flood damage to their property and enable faster recovery (e.g. temporary flood barriers, raising plug sockets and so on), and ways of accelerating this policy and address any barriers to progress.

The Flood Re Consultation:

• Defra consulted on a number of proposals, including some which go further than Flood Re’s Quinquennial Review proposals in order to accelerate the uptake of Property Flood Resilience and better support customers and insurers to recognise these benefits.

The objective of the analysis is to enable government to implement the priorities for partnership funding and PFR as set out in the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) policy statement.

In this project we are:

• applying a systematic approach to review stakeholder responses to Defra’s Call for Evidence and flood Re consultation including evidence submitted as part of responses; and

• delivering two workshops on the call for evidence with different sets of stakeholders to look in more depth at the evidence presented and to facilitate meaningful discussion of their implications for policy implementation.

The project started in March 2021 and is expected to run until June 2021.

For more information, please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP).

CEP presenting research on how to work with communities to manage the flood and coastal erosion risks

CEP presenting work undertaken for Defra and the Environment Agency on a flood and coastal erosion risk management research and development framework: working with communities.

Dr. Clare Twigger-Ross and Rolands Sadauskis will be giving a presentation on the work undertaken for Defra and the Environment Agency on ‘Communities and flood and coastal erosion risk management research and development framework’ as part of the ‘Simply Evidence Seminar’ hosted by Defra. This project developed a framework to determine the priorities for future research on how to work with communities to manage the risks associated with flooding and coastal erosion.

The presentation will focus on the approach to develop the framework, including the literature review and gap analysis, and will highlight the priority areas for future research that could shape existing and future research and help prioritise Environment Agency’s research funding. This webinar is organised following the publication of the key outputs from this work:

• Communities and FCERM research framework report

• Literature review report

• One-page summaries for each FCERM activity based on literature review findings,

The aim of the webinar is to raise awareness of the programme and to seek engagement from policy makers with the projects in the priority areas.

For further information, please contact Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Senior Consultant)

CEP evidence review informs Defra Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk

Defra has just published CEP’s ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience’ alongside its Policy Statement which sets out the government’s long-term ambition to create a nation more resilient to flood and coastal erosion. 

Defra published its Policy Statement on flood and coastal erosion risk on 14 July.  An ‘Evidence review of the concept of flood resilience‘ and a summary report of the outcome of the 2019 Flood and coastal erosion: call for evidence (two supporting documents prepared by Collingwood Environmental Planning) were published at the same time.

As set out in the 25 Year Environment Plan, the government intends to boost the long-term resilience of homes, businesses, infrastructure and the environment and reduce harm from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion. The National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England, which was laid before Parliament on 14 July, calls for transformational action on resilience and adaptation. The move towards “flood resilience” from “flood risk management” reflects the need to diversify strategies to enable people to live well in the context of floods.

To inform Defra’s Policy Statement, this project reviewed the main frameworks for defining and conceptualising flood resilience, and how such frameworks can be used in a resilience approach for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management. 

The evidence review involved:

• A Quick Scoping Review covering the main approaches to flood resilience currently in existence and the use of metrics to implement resilience approaches

• Two evidence review and policy implementation workshops involving FCERM policymakers and cross-government practitioners.

For more information please contact Paula Orr (Technical Director, CEP) or Spela Kolaric (Senior Consultant, CEP).

CEP to attend upcoming virtual Defra/Environment Agency TAG meeting

CEP’s Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be attending the upcoming virtual Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Theme Advisory Group meeting

Dr Clare Twigger-Ross will be attending the virtual Defra/Environment Agency Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Research and Development Theme Advisory Group meeting on behalf of CEP on 6th May.  This meeting brings together the three advisory groups Policy, Strategy and Investment (PSI), Incident Management and Modelling (IMM), Asset Management (AM) who all support Defra/Environment Agency in their FCERM research and development.  The groups consist of a range of experts from across different areas of flood and coastal erosion risk management. At this meeting the groups will be updated on the latest research and also meet separately to discuss the upcoming research programme. 

Clare has been on a theme advisory group since 2004.  She is currently part of the Policy, Strategy and Investment (PSI) group.

For more information please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Technical Director).

CEP to facilitate a workshop on the development of the Communities and FCERM R&D framework

This week CEP are facilitating a workshop on the development of a Communities and FCERM R&D framework

CEP is facilitating a one day workshop with a range of key stakeholders to consult and engage them in the development of the Communities and FCERM R&D framework.

The workshop will aim to identify additional relevant research and research gaps to help shape the development of the framework. It will also enable participants to input to the development of the framework through sharing of their knowledge and volunteering to review project ideas as they are developed.

The workshop is organised by the Environment Agency and will take place in London on Wednesday 11th March 2020. Attendance is by invitation only.

CEP, in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW), have been commissioned by the Environment Agency (EA) to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework. The primary aim of the project is to identify the main research gaps in the area of FCERM through a detailed review of the current science.

Information about the Communities and FCERM R&D framework project can be found here.

For more information, please contact Dr Clare Twigger-Ross (Project Director) or Rolands Sadauskis (Project Coordinator).

CEP reviewing evidence on flood resilience for Defra

CEP is leading an evidence review of flood resilience for Defra and the Environment Agency.

CEP is leading a project to provide an evidence review of flood resilience for Defra and the Environment Agency. The project was commissioned in summer 2019 and is expected to conclude in spring 2020. CEP’s consortium partners are the Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University and HaskoningDHV UK Ltd.

The government’s 25 Year Environment Plan includes a goal to reduce the risk of harm to people, the environment and the economy from natural hazards including flooding and coastal erosion. “Boosting the long-term resilience of our homes, businesses and infrastructure” is one of the measures by which this will be achieved. Resilience is also central to the Environment Agency’s draft National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England which emphasises the need for ‘climate resilient places’.

The overall objective of the project is to review the concept of flood resilience and how it can be used in a resilience framework for managing flood and coastal erosion risks in England. 

So far the project has:

• Developed evidence from peer-reviewed and grey literature on the main approaches to flood resilience that are currently in use.

• Provided a summary of the responses to Defra’s ‘Call for Evidence on Flooding and Coastal Erosion’ to inform the Government’s policy on flood and coastal erosion resilience.

• Supported engagement of flood risk management policy-makers and practitioners in exploring how resilience concepts, frameworks and metrics could best be implemented in policy and how to address any barriers to implementation.

• Facilitated cross-Government consideration of the different concepts of resilience currently in use, how these could best be aligned and what targets and metrics could be used.  

The results of the research will be published by Defra later this year.

For more information please contact CEP’s Paula Orr (Project Director) or Spela Kolaric (Project Coordinator) for more information.

New EA project to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework

CEP HAS BEEN COMMISSIONED TO DEVELOP A COMMUNITIES AND FCERM R&D FRAMEWORK

CEP, in partnership with Flood Hazard Research Centre (FHRC) Middlesex University and HR Wallingford (HRW), have been commissioned by the Environment Agency (EA) to develop a Communities and FCERM R&D Framework. The primary aim of the project is to identify the main research gaps in the area of FCERM through a detailed review of the current science.

The review process is being supplemented with interviews and further workshops with key stakeholders. The outputs from this project will help to set-out a roadmap for delivering and funding EA projects to fill these gaps. The project began in October and will come to a close at the end of 2020.

For more information please contact CEP’s Clare Twigger-Ross, the Project Manager, or Rolands Sadauskis, the Project Coordinator.