What is Natural Flood Management?

Project Team: JHI and Heriot Watt University

Aims:

  • Contribute to the implementation of natural flood management (NFM) in Scotland,
  • Support the Scottish Government in developing a position statement on NFM, and
  • Improve education in natural flood management.

Background and policy/stakeholder relevance:

Whilst this work will have a direct and immediate impact on implementation of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009, it will also inform policy on development of flood risk management plans, future work on the Land Use Strategy, and on-going negotiations on CAP reform.

Deliverables:

  1. Web format NFM database. This activity aims to enhance the existing Scottish Government and SEPA database with additional information especially: photographic records, simple descriptions of individual interventions, and details of their efficacy from demonstration sites in Scotland. This data will help local authorities, landowners and riparian managers in making informed land use decisions.
  2. Paper collating data from recent projects on farmer’s attitudes and NFM. It will: bring together findings from a number of recent studies examining farmer’s attitudes towards NFM, consider farmers views of the barriers and opportunities of implementing NFM and identify trends.
  3. Contribution to SNIFFER/SEPA workshop on 19th October 2011 “NFM implementation: Learning from practice”. CREW has been in discussion with SNIFFER about this workshop and are likely to: present the outcomes JHI research such as Farmer NFM workshops and contribute to consideration of “next steps”.
  4. Reviewing the literature and evidence on the effect of NFM features on the desynchronisation of flood peaks at a catchment scale,
  5. Examine the issue of land drainage and flooding. Review historical trends and evidence, and consider methods and data sources needed to provide robust evidence on the effect of land drainage on flooding
  6. Review international evidence about the impact that different SUDS measures (such as green roofs and retention ponds) have in managing flood scenarios (e.g. 1 in 30 year flood, 1 in 100 year flood).

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