Apps alerting residents to
flooding, permeable road surfaces to improve drainage and schemes
to protect vital sand dune beaches are among 25 new flooding and
coastal resilience projects across England awarded funding today
(Monday 29 March).
The pioneering projects, led by local authorities and delivered
over the next six years, will receive a share of £150 million
from Defra as part of the government’s new Flood
and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme and
will be managed by the Environment Agency.
They are part of the government’s long-term plan on flood and
coastal erosion and a renewed effort to develop and test new
approaches to tackle these threats.
The schemes will trial a wide range of different approaches to
resilience tailored to local communities. These include plans to
restore sub-tidal habitats like kelp beds, oyster reefs and sea
grass near South Tyneside, as well as the installation of
specialised property flood resilience measures and an app for
local residents to tackle the threat of groundwater in
Buckinghamshire.
Environment Minister said:
“We’re investing a record £5.2 billion in 2,000 new flood and
coastal defences over the next six years – but with the effects
of climate change already being felt it’s vital that we combine
this with long-term approaches to improve communities’
resilience.
“These 25 projects will not only help to inform future approaches
to prepare communities for flooding and coastal change across the
country, but also help reinforce the UK’s position as a world
leader in innovation and new technology as we build back
better.”
Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Environment Agency
said:
“The innovation programme is extremely exciting as it begins to
put new aspects of the national flood and coastal erosion risk
strategy to the test. What we learn will inform our approach to
the climate crisis in the coming decades and it’s something to
tell our international partners about at COP26.
“I’m particularly interested in the projects that test the
ability of nature-based projects to generate revenue. If
successful, these could be scaled up by private finance around
the world, helping to prepare for climate shocks, restore nature
and create jobs. ”
The funding is in addition to the government’s record £5.2
billion investment in new flood and coastal defences to better
protect 336,000 properties across England by 2027. The 25 areas
have been selected following an expressions of interest process
managed by Defra and the Environment Agency and assessed by an
independent expert panel.
Additional funding will be used to support the development of
adaptation pathways in the Thames and Humber Estuaries, Yorkshire
and the Severn Valley, to help plan future investment in flood
and coastal resilience.
North East, Yorkshire and the
Humber
-
North East Lincolnshire and South Yorkshire -
A project covering Grimsby, Immingham and Doncaster delivering
town-wide resilience to surface water flooding. The project
seeks to trial different approaches to engage with communities
and retrofit sustainable drainage measures, such as water butts
and rain gardens.
York and North Yorkshire - A
large strategic project looking at Swale, Ure, Nidd and Ouse
catchments covering an area over 3000 km2. This project plans to
undertake modelling and develop flood storage and natural flood
management opportunities across the catchment.
-
Northumberland - A project aiming to improve
the flood resilience of at least six rural communities using a
range of solutions, including testing and developing an
enhanced flood warning system. This will be delivered using
artificial intelligence and new sensor technology.
-
South Tyneside - A project to support coastal
adaptation by working along the north-east coastline, to
undertake a number of activities including restoration of
sub-tidal habitats (such as kelp beds, oyster reefs and sea
grass) to protect against coastal erosion and flooding. The
project learning will benefit the whole north-east coastline.
-
Stockton-on-Tees: To bolster resilience to
coastal flooding through several activities, including creating
new habitats such as saltmarshes and mudflats and trialling a
‘habitat bank’ to enable developers to invest in nature and
resilience. The project will contribute to local economic
regeneration by protecting coastal communities.
-
County Durham - The council plans to develop a
new approach to designing, delivering and monitoring
sustainable drainage systems, such as raingardens, smart butts
and street trees. This will include inviting UK based SMEs to
run competitions to find innovative solutions to community
sustainable drainage.
-
Gateshead – Historic coal mining has impacted
groundwater in urbanised areas of Northumbria. The project will
use the latest monitoring technology to measure groundwater
levels and trial a groundwater flood warning service. This
trial will inform the case for developing a national ground
water warning service.
North West
-
Cumbria - This project aims to test a range of
solutions to improve resilience to flooding, including working
with farmers and landowners to deliver natural flood management
projects such as leaky dams, tree planting and flood storage to
slow the flow and store floodwaters in a range of locations.
-
Rochdale - The project plans to target
deprived and hard-to-reach communities in the Roch Valley, with
high turnover and rented accommodation. The project is looking
to proactively install property flood resilience, such as flood
gates, across homes and local small businesses.
-
Wyre - The project aims to enhance the coastal
resilience of North West coastal communities to the
consequences of climate change, such as from erosion and
coastal flooding by creating Ecological Community Owned Coastal
Buffer Strips (which could include natural wooden barriers to
capture sediment, seeding of plants, establishing saltmarshes)
that also capture carbon.
Midlands
-
Northamptonshire - This project plans to
assess how different resilience actions at catchment, community
and property levels can be applied. This will include providing
emergency response equipment to affected communities, setting
up a surface water and groundwater flood warning system and
live exercises of community flood plans.
-
Lincolnshire – A project with Anglian Water to
explore best practice for holistic management of groundwater
resources, flooding and drought. This could include groundwater
property flood resilience, localised flood warning systems.
-
Staffordshire: A project aiming to improve the
resilience of flooding in Staffordshire through a variety of
activities, including developing new cutting-edge technology to
forecast and map flood events as well as CCTV monitoring in
high risks areas, helping to boost community resilience through
an easier accessible web platform.
East of England
-
Southend-on-Sea - The Catchment to Coast
project plans to reduce surface water and coastal flooding to
communities in Thurrock and Southend-on-Sea using natural flood
management techniques, including rainwater harvesting, changing
agricultural practices to reduce pollution and establish
saltmarshes in the estuary.
-
Suffolk and Norfolk - This project will
deliver an innovative approach to integrated water management –
helping to manage floods and drought. The project aims to
capture surface water run-off
during periods of flood and high rainfall, and reusing water
for groundwater recharge and agriculture, improving water
security in rural communities.
-
Central Bedfordshire - This project will use
new sensing technologies to help use flood risk infrastructure
more effectively, improving the use of existing flood storage
areas and investing in a network of telemetry to enable
management of reservoirs across the catchment.
-
East Suffolk and Norfolk – This project will
pilot a coastal adaptation toolkit and a community adaptation
masterplan to prepare the coast for a climate resilient future
in an area with one of the fastest eroding coastlines in
Europe.
London and South
East
-
Buckinghamshire: Trial for a new approach to
groundwater flooding in Chilterns and Berkshire Downs,
including plans for property flood resilience measures in up to
200 homes, groundwater monitoring (including innovative
technology such as gulley sensors) and a Groundwater Flood
Alert App for householders and businesses.
-
Slough - The project will take the innovative
Chinese 'sponge city' concept to address the challenges of
surface water and river flooding in a heavily urbanised
environment. This will include permeable road surfacing, green
roofs and natural vegetation that better drains and manages
rainwater.
-
East Sussex - This project will use a
combination of new technologies to tackle surface water
flooding, developing an integrated catchment wide model for the
Eastbourne catchment. This will include installation of local
digital equipment for monitoring water-levels and new boreholes
to provide real-time monitoring for flood risk and local
surface water flooding.
-
Barnet – The London Boroughs of Barnet, Harrow
and Brent have some of the fastest housing growth rates in
London. The project will examine catchment-wide interventions
to manage flood risk along the River Brent and the Silkstream
and demonstrate how natural flood management can manage river
flooding in urbanised areas.
-
Richmond-upon-Thames - This project will
modernise flood risk management in the Beverley Brook catchment
by delivering property flood resilience, natural flood
management and community preparedness.
South West
-
Cornwall – Designating and protecting sand
dunes on the Cornish Coast to protect coastal settlements and
economies from coastal erosion and sea level rise. Six sites
will be selected to deliver planting, saltmarsh restoration,
protection of community infrastructure and support to SMEs,
with learning transferred across the country.
-
Devon - This project is focusing on catchments
where there are significant risks from localised surface water
flooding. The project will take a 'catchment-wide' approach to
identify and implement nature-based solutions and sustainable
drainage to help communities across Devon and Cornwall
including collaboration with the Dartmoor and Exmouth National
Parks.
-
City of Bristol - The Frome Catchment
Innovation Programme will use a mix of flood resilience
measures that mirror the rural to city nature of the Frome
catchment. This project will deliver restoration of the River
Frome through the Yate Masterplan and Frome Gateway
regeneration initiative.
