Managing flood risk – getting in the know!
February 3, 2015
Last week I attended *CIWEM’s: ‘Signposting New Developments in Asset Management’ conference. It’s title doesn’t do it justice. The event was organised to raise awareness and increase access to emerging and new guidance in the field of Flood and Coastal Erosions Risk Management (FCERM) asset management. It demonstrated the benefits and showcased new guidance, handbooks and data available to better manage flood risk and asset damage.
Why is this important?
Flooding costs: life, time, money, the environment, farming, property values and human well-being.
It is estimated that the 2013-14 floods cost the nation at least £1.1bn** – and this is only the financial cost.
This figure is broken down into:
- Insurance claims: £451 million (and this is just for incurred insurance claims)
- Uninsured costs: £130 million
- Central Government support and repairs: at least £540 million (The Government states it has made £540m available for flood recovery in the form of various grants for businesses, households and farmers; for flood defence repairs and for patching up transport infrastructure.)
- Local Government costs and claims: at least £6.6m
- Lost output due to closed businesses, travel disruptions and blackouts: unknown
- Longer-term costs? (Hard to estimate, but the 7,800 homes that were flooded during the winter could well see their insurance premiums go up, while the value of the houses could be dented. There is also a feared longer-term impact on agricultural land prices in Somerset, where the fertility of fields were badly affected by being underwater for months.)
** Source: newstatesman.com/staggers/2014/06/counting-1bn-cost-winter-floods
So the work that goes on ‘behind the scenes’ by professionals in their field (environmental consultants, the Environment Agency, university professors, engineers and specialists): research; data gathering; asset auditing and reporting; production of regulation and support; best practice; modelling guidance – should be celebrated and more people made aware. Insights into the number of new guides, including the EA Creating Asset Management Capacity (CAMC) programme, Channel Management Handbook, International Levee Handbook and Reservoir Risk Assessment guidance is work that could potentially change lives and improve the management of flood risk and coastal erosion.
To keep up-to-date with the discussion and improve your knowledge on the latest in flood and coastal erosion management visit ciwem.org/events/events-outputs.aspx where presentation slides, delegate notes, reports and data from ‘Signposting New Developments in Asset Management’ will be available free to download.
*CIWEM (The Chartered Institution of Water & Environmental Management) is the only independent, chartered professional body and registered charity with an integrated approach to environmental, social and cultural issues. It works for the public benefit for a clean, green and sustainable world.
Tracey Daley
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