Plenty on national and local news this morning following the release of a new Environment Agency speech on planning ahead for the impacts of climate change on coastal communities.
This was delivered by the EA Chair Emma Howard Boyd, and launched a new consultation on future flooding resilience.
You can read a full transcript of the speech here.
I was particularly interested in this section.
Only a third of people who live in flood risk areas believe their properties are at risk.
We need to build a nation of climate champions who understand their risk, are responsible for it, and know how to act on it.
We need to inspire people to take action before flooding hits. We will do this by educating young people about the risks through the school curriculum, by helping people to understand what action to take, and which services they can expect from public bodies.
We have a world class flood forecasting service that provides people, businesses, and the emergency services with information to help them prepare for a flood.
If you haven’t already, please sign up to our free flood warnings and find out why PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE is the slogan for our flood campaign. It is information that could literally save your life.
As always, schools are mentioned, but of course we have been teaching about the risk of flooding for decades... and will continue to do so. Flood defences have, in the past, given a false reassurance that the risk is over. It is not.
A section in the speech which many news reports picked up on related to the possibility of moving communities:
“We can’t win a war against water by building away climate change with infinitely high flood defences,” she said.
She called for more to be done to encourage property owners to rebuild homes after flooding in better locations, and with improvements such as raised electrics, hard flooring and flood doors, rather than just "recreating what was there before".
However, she warned that in some places "the scale of the threat may be so significant that recovery will not always be the best long term solution" and communities would need help to "move out of harm's way".
This was delivered by the EA Chair Emma Howard Boyd, and launched a new consultation on future flooding resilience.
You can read a full transcript of the speech here.
I was particularly interested in this section.
Only a third of people who live in flood risk areas believe their properties are at risk.
We need to build a nation of climate champions who understand their risk, are responsible for it, and know how to act on it.
We need to inspire people to take action before flooding hits. We will do this by educating young people about the risks through the school curriculum, by helping people to understand what action to take, and which services they can expect from public bodies.
We have a world class flood forecasting service that provides people, businesses, and the emergency services with information to help them prepare for a flood.
If you haven’t already, please sign up to our free flood warnings and find out why PREPARE. ACT. SURVIVE is the slogan for our flood campaign. It is information that could literally save your life.
As always, schools are mentioned, but of course we have been teaching about the risk of flooding for decades... and will continue to do so. Flood defences have, in the past, given a false reassurance that the risk is over. It is not.
A section in the speech which many news reports picked up on related to the possibility of moving communities:
“We can’t win a war against water by building away climate change with infinitely high flood defences,” she said.
She called for more to be done to encourage property owners to rebuild homes after flooding in better locations, and with improvements such as raised electrics, hard flooring and flood doors, rather than just "recreating what was there before".
However, she warned that in some places "the scale of the threat may be so significant that recovery will not always be the best long term solution" and communities would need help to "move out of harm's way".
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