The Flood and Coastal Engineering (FACE) programme is providing BSc and MSc degrees for Environment Agency staff and others with an interest in flood and coastal erosion risk management. The programme includes an initial 2-year Foundation degree. FACE is sponsored by the Environment Agency and is being implemented by Brunel University and HR Wallingford. The presentation will provide a summary of the main areas of study covered by the degree courses. In addition, some specific learning points covered in the FACE programme will be described to provide an insight into the courses and their importance for flood and coastal erosion risk management. It is intended that the learning points will be of general interest to conference participants and will be based on site visits and practical exercises undertaken by students. The learning points will include problems related to flood water level and flow data and how they can be identified and corrected, a brief summary of how flood probability and flood risk maps are derived and the meaning of the information presented, and roles and responsibilities in flood resilience.

Following the severe floods of winter 2013/14, an emergency programme of dredging was carried out on the tidal reaches of the River Parrett and the River Tone to reduce flood risk to the moors and the communities that were affected by the flooding. The Somerset Rivers Authority developed a flood action plan for the Somerset Levels and Moors that covered all aspects of flood management including engineering works and non-structural measures. The plan includes a programme of dredging to reduce flood risk. In order to inform the dredging programme, a dredging strategy was prepared to identify the possibilities of dredging for flood risk reduction. The first stage of the strategy covered the tidal reaches of the River Parrett and the River Tone, and the River Brue. The presentation will cover the River Parrett and the River Tone. Particular challenges on these tidal rivers include the high tidal range and the very high sediment loads from the Severn estuary. There was a need to develop dredging designs which balanced the hydraulic benefit (in terms of reduction in flood levels) with the amount of maintenance dredging that will be needed in the future. The strategy includes some new dredging and a programme of maintenance dredging. The works will be guided by regular monitoring of the river channels to determine the requirements for each maintenance dredge. The presentation will described the dredging strategy including the proposed techniques for both the new dredging and the maintenance dredging.

Following severe floods in 2008 and 2010, the Government of Moldova requested assistance to improve flood protection throughout the country.The European Investment Bank has funded a Technical Assistance project to develop a programme of flood risk management measures.The project included the detailed 2D hydraulic modelling of the high-risk rivers (about 3400 km) to produce flood hazard and flood risk maps, the identification of measures to reduce the flood risk, the prioritisation of measures and the development of a phased investment programme and a Short-Term Investment Plan.Flood risk was assessed using 12 flood risk indicators representing social, economic and environmental impacts of flooding.Prioritisation of measures took account of: (i) the urgency of the measure; (ii) the magnitude of the risk that can be reduced with the measure; (iii) the benefit-cost ratio of the measure.The approaches used and in particular the methodologies implemented and the results obtained for flood risk assessment and for prioritisation of measures proved to be valuable tools to reach the objective of the study and, in particular, to facilitate the discussion with the stakeholders and the decision-making process.

This report presents the scientific basis and development of the Ecological Impact Assessment (EIA) tools for fluvial flooding (EIA F tool) and coastal inundation (EIA C tool). These tools have been developed within the Ecological Consequences of Flooding (ECF) project and may be used to support an environmental risk assessment. When developing plans to manage flood risk, economic, social and environmental impacts are considered. There are many tools that help to estimate the economic impacts. However, there is currently no standard approach for evaluating the impacts on the natural environment within a flood risk assessment. Impacts of floods on the natural environment are often complex and include benefits and disbenefits. The Broad Scale Ecosystem Assessment (BSEA) toolkit is based on GIS data sets (existing or producible) that already exist or can be easily created and that have an apparent relationship with ecological characteristics. It is largely left to experts to interpret the ecological implications of these data. The project reported here builds on this work by introducing more scientific knowledge and objectivity to the assessment of ecological impact by developing prototype GIS based tools that will support decision making. The prototype tools developed here will be used to provide an initial assessment of ecological assets at risk of fluvial flooding and coastal inundation. In this way it will help all Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM) authorites fulfil their duties under the EU Floods Directive, Habitats Directive, Bird’s Directive and Water Framework Directive. In the future it is envisioned that the tool will be embedded within software and made available to general users through an application like the Modelling Decision Support Framework that is used by the Environment Agency in the preparation of Catchment Flood Management Plans. The tools will thus support Environmental Impact Assessments and Strategic Environmental Assessments for flood risk management activities. The scoping study that underpins this project (Ramsbottom et al., 2005) concluded that although gaps exist in scientific understanding of ecological impacts and data coverage and resolution, it was feasible to integrate the available information within a Geographical Information System (GIS), and to produce prototype tools. Aim and Objectives The overall aim of the project is to develop, test and disseminate prototype methods for assessing and mapping the ecological risk, including harmful and beneficial effects, resulting from flooding. The aim was achieved through the following objectives. • Reviewing literature and consulting experts to identify current requirements, tools and knowledge • Defining the scope of the tool and ecologically significant hydrological indices • Deciding on the resolution of impact assessment • Specifying the methodology • Defining ecological sensitivities to flooding o Using scientific literature, empirical assessment and expert opinion • Preparing scorecards as frameworks for impact assessment • Producing guidance for the prototype tools • Pilot testing o Calibrating, verifying and assessing applicability of the proposed methods • Disseminating findings – including a scientific paper and good practice guidance. The prototype tools and their application The prototype tools described in this report guide the user in making an objective and quantitative (where appropriate) assessment of the ecological impact of floods on the environment using ARC GIS 9.3 with its standard toolbox supplemented with Spatial Analyst. Although GIS based, they are spreadsheet tools that assesses the ecological impact of a given hydrological scenario by comparing this to the sensitivities of mapped ecological assets. The tools would support anyone undertaking an ecological flood risk assessment. They represent a tiered approach (comparable to the BSEA) to ecological impact assessment which is necessary to ensure that an appropriate level of analysis is adopted which is justified by the importance of the decision. Step by step guidance in using the tools is available (Guidance Report). The ecological assessment is made using spreadsheet based scorecards. The ecological sensitivities defined above for impact assessment are captured on the scorecards. The user must define the current flooding/relative sea level rise scenario and undertake a series of defined spatial data queries before assessing the impacts of flooding. The user must specify the impact assessment criteria as these are likely to change with time and with the specific objectives of a given assessment (e.g. what is an allowable loss of bird habitat?). The impacts of flooding are then evaluated by comparing the sensitivities of flooding to the flood characteristics. Given that the prototype tools use many spatial datasets of varying resolution, accuracy, age and completeness several areas of uncertainty are identified and discussed. These must be acknowledged in any assessment and a decision must be made as to which need quantifying in a given study. The prototype tools have been tested in two fluvial and two coastal regions. Test of both tools were successful and demonstrated the applicability of the tools. A degree of verification was presented by expert assessment of the results of the pilot tests. Relevance to strategy and legislation The ECF method supports activities throughout the tiered approach to fluvial flood risk management planning. In particular, it supports catchment flood management planning, shoreline management planning, strategy planning and PFRAs (required under the Flood Risk Regulations 2009). The tools could also support the assessment of outcome measures, spatial planning and appraisal. They provide a framework for assessment although the level of detail would change from the high level CFMP/SMP to the more detailed Strategy Plan. The application of the tools at the more detailed scheme level requires further consideration and would need to include site specific information. The way the ECF tools link to existing tools and methods is considered as this is key to its successful integration to flood risk management. Conclusions and recommendations The prototype tools successfully integrate current scientific knowledge, expert opinion and available data in a framework that allows a more objective assessment of the ecological impacts of flooding. This was demonstrated through pilot testing. Our ability to assess the impacts of flooding on ecology would be greatly enhanced by the following: • Developing NAFRA data to include more ecologically relevant data (frequent floods, seasonality and duration) • Increasing coverage of up to date high resolution habitat mapping (e.g. National Vegetation Classification data) • Increasing scientific understanding of the sensitivities of environmental assets to flooding/inundation. The relevance of the methods to current strategy and legislation has been demonstrated by considering specific activities within flood risk management.

This report presents a step by step guide on how to use the Ecological Impact Assessment (EIA) tools for fluvial flooding (EIA F tool) and coastal inundation (EIA C tool). These tools have been developed within the Ecological Consequences of Flooding (ECF) project and may be used to support an environmental risk assessment (Old et al., 2010). When developing plans to manage flood risk, economic, social and environmental impacts are considered. There are many tools that help to estimate the economic impacts. However, there is currently no standard approach for evaluating the impacts on the natural environment within a flood risk assessment. Impacts of floods on the natural environment are often complex and include benefits and disbenefits. The Broad Scale Ecosystem Assessment (BSEA) toolkit is based on GIS data sets (existing or producible) that already exist or can be easily created and that have an apparent relationship with ecological characteristics. It is largely left to experts to interpret the ecological implications of these data. The GIS based tools presented here build on this work by introducing more scientific knowledge and objectivity to the assessment of ecological impact. The prototype tools will be used to provide an initial assessment of environmental assets at risk of fluvial flooding and coastal inundation. In this way it will help the authorities responsible for Flood and Coastal Risk Management to fulfil their duties under the EU Floods Directive, Habitats Directive, Bird’s Directive and Water Framework Directive. In the future it is envisioned that the tools will be embedded within software and made available to general users through an application like the Modelling Decision Support Framework that is currently in use by the Environment Agency. This will support Environmental Impact Assessments and Strategic Environmental Assessments for flood risk management activities. The prototype tools guide the user in making an objective and quantitative (where appropriate) assessment of the impacts of floods on the environment using ARC GIS 9.3 with its standard toolbox supplemented with Spatial Analyst. Although GIS based, they are spreadsheet tools that assesses the environmental impact of a given hydrological scenario by comparing this to the sensitivities of mapped environmental assets. The tools would support anyone undertaking an ecological flood risk assessment. They represent a tiered approach (comparable to the BSEA) to environmental impact assessment which is necessary to ensure that an appropriate level of analysis is adopted which is justified by the importance of the decision. Step by step guidance in using the tools is presented and supplemented with screenshots of the required GIS tasks. The environmental assessment is made using spreadsheet based scorecards. Ecological sensitivities to flooding/inundation are captured on the scorecards. The user must define the current flooding/relative sea level rise scenario and undertake a series of defined spatial data queries before assessing the impacts of flooding. The user must specify the impact assessment criteria as these are likely to change with time and with the specific objectives of a given assessment (e.g. what is an allowable loss of bird habitat?). The impacts of flooding are then evaluated by comparing the sensitivities of flooding to the flood characteristics. Given that the prototype tools use many spatial datasets of varying resolution, accuracy, age and completeness several areas of uncertainty must be acknowledged in any assessment and a decision must be made as to which need quantifying in a given study. The prototype tools have been tested in two fluvial and two coastal regions (see Technical Report). Test of both tools were successful and demonstrated the applicability of the tools. A degree of verification was presented by expert assessment of the results of the pilot tests. The limitations of both tools are considered and these mostly relate to knowledge on the sensitivities of environmental assets to flooding/inundation and the availability of data. The relevance of both tools to strategy and legislation is also considered. The method is currently ‘high level’, suitable for strategic planning but possibly not detailed enough for specific local decisions associated with flood risk management schemes and watercourse maintenance. Recommendations are made in the project Technical Report for moving towards a more detailed level of assessment.

A flood risk management plan is being developed for the Thames Estuary, covering the next 100 years. In 2007 flood risk management options (the ‘High Level Options’) were developed for a range of different climate change scenarios. The objective was to provide initial flood risk management options for the estuary, and identify how the uncertainties of future climate change could be managed. Since then the options have been further developed to take into account other drivers including the deterioration of the existing flood risk management assets. Whilst the Plan will lead to preferred options for managing flood risk, it is recognised that the assumptions used to develop these options could change. The paper demonstrates how the options would be adapted to change. Whilst the main options have been developed to manage flood risk for the whole estuary, there are choices to be made at the local or Policy Management Unit (PMU) level. Hence the approach applies to both the estuary-wide and PMU levels.

In 2000, Mozambique was hit by widespread flooding that affected some 4.5 million people and cost approximately 20% of the country's gross domestic product. In a large, sparsely populated country such as Mozambique, a structural approach to flood risk management cannot be justified on environmental and economic grounds. As a consequence, flood mitigation measures need to focus on nonstructural solutions, such as reducing vulnerability to flooding and improving preparedness. This paper details the development of sustainable flood risk management strategies and the production of educational tools to reduce rural communities' vulnerability to flooding. The tools, which were developed in partnership with local stakeholders, included a Source Book on sustainable flood risk management strategies, a series of posters, a manual and a card game aimed at improving schoolchildren's flood preparedness. These tools were piloted in partnership with three rural communities in the Limpopo River basin in order to develop sustainable flood risk management strategies.

To date the work done in the UK to assess the loss of life as a result of flooding has been limited, with the “Risk To People” model being the most commonly used tool to assess flood fatalities. However, it is an empirical, generalised model that does not use detailed information on each individual receptor in its “broad scale” estimates of loss of life. For a more accurate assessment of loss of life an agent-based model is required. An agentbased model simulates the interactions of autonomous receptors with a view to assessing their effects on the system as a whole. It can model the simultaneous operations of multiple agents (in this case people and vehicles) with floodwater, in an attempt to re-create and predict the actions of complex phenomena such as those that occur in a flood emergency. A prototype, agent-based Life Safety Model (LSM) has been used to estimate the loss of life for two embayments in the Thames Estuary. The LSM models individual receptors (e.g. people and cars) and their dynamic interaction with the flood wave. This is done by integrating transport routing models with the results of two dimensional hydrodynamic modelling. The LSM estimates fatalities from: drowning; exhaustion; building collapse; and vehicles being swept away. The LSM offers a scientifically robust method of assessing the residual risk behind flood defences and for dam breaks in terms of injuries and lives lost. Importantly, it allows the comparison of different emergency management strategies that could assist in reducing the loss of life during future flood incidents. The model was validated against historical data from the 1953 Canvey Island flood.

Mozambique is located at the downstream end of nine major international river basins. Over the past 50 years there have been a number of devastating floods that have affected millions of people in Mozambique, as well as the economy of one of the world’s poorest countries. In 2000 Mozambique was hit by widespread floods covering seven river basins that were some of the worst on record. The 2000 floods affected some two million Mozambicans and cost approximately 20% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). A cost-benefit analysis of structural versus non-structural measures has indicated that in Mozambique a structural approach to flood management cannot be justified. This is a result of the width of the floodplains, low population densities and the pressing development needs, such as improvements to water supply and sanitation infrastructure. As a consequence flood mitigation measures need to focus on non-structural solutions, such as reducing vulnerability to flooding and improving preparedness. This paper details the development of sustainable flood mitigations strategies, and the production of awareness raising and educational tools to reduce poor communities’ vulnerability to flooding. The tools, which were developed in partnership with local stakeholders, include a Source Book on sustainable flood mitigation strategies, a series of posters, together with a manual and card game aimed at improving flood preparedness amongst school children. The flood mitigation strategies were piloted in partnership with three communities in the Limpopo River basin. The objective was to encourage those reliant on floodplains for their livelihoods to ‘help themselves’ through increased awareness, responsibility and sense of ownership of the problems and their solutions. The results of the developed strategies were then implemented in partnership with the communities in an effort to increase their resilience to future floods.

Flooding from rivers, estuaries and the sea poses a risk to people as well as causing significant economic impacts. In 1953 the North Sea floods caused approximately 2500 deaths across the UK, Netherlands, Belgium and Germany and concentrations of fatalities have been associated with flash floods such as Lynmouth in Cornwall (1952, over 30 deaths). There were a number of fatalities associated with the Easter 1998 and Autumn 2000 floods in England and Wales (Kelman, 2003). In August 2004, a major airborne rescue operation was required to rescue victims of the Boscastle flood and in January 2005, the media reported 3 fatalities in flooding in Carlisle and surrounding areas. A key Government objective for the Environment Agency is “to reduce the risks to people and to the developed and natural environment from flooding.” (Environment Agency Corporate Strategy, 2002-07). Over the last 50 years a wide ranges of flood risk management measures have reduced the risks to people in the UK. Nevertheless, flood risks cannot be completely eliminated and to support Government targets for flood risk management there is a requirement for methods to estimate the risks to people, as well as risks of economic and environmental damage. This paper describes a method for assessing and mapping risks to people that was developed within Defra/EA research project FD2321 “Risks to People Phase 2.” It introduces the concepts of flood hazard, area vulnerability and people vulnerability, provides an example of risks to people calculations for Carlisle and presents research recommendations for flood hazard and vulnerability mapping.