The project seeks to improve the sustainability of development in flood risk areas by working with both technical and social aspects of flood risk information and its integration into decision support systems for spatial planning. The project will also consider transferable strategies for improved water management.

Climate change will have an increasing impact on river systems and sea levels creating an ever-greater risk of coastal and river flooding. There is a need to protect existing flood prone areas, while managing flood plains to ensure a balance between social, economic and environmental considerations. ?Flood Plain Land Use Optimising Workable Sustainability? (FLOWS) aims to provide a ?tool box? of techniques that planners, water managers and decision makers can use in decision support systems for areas facing increased flood risk from climate change, to provide for sustainable development, and to demonstrate practical low cost measures, including infrastructure for reducing flood damage to property and land. Results will be widely disseminated.

Expected Outcomes

The outcomes of the FLOWS project will be the development of new techniques to help manage flood prone areas through the integration of the technical and social aspects of flood risk information and its integration into decision support systems for spatial planning. The technical outcomes include the development of improved mapping and modelling systems for flooding and land use, providing improved knowledge of flood risk for spatial planners and developers, the retro fitting of existing properties to showcase techniques, and the development of flood risk symbols. The project will also result in conferences, workshops, a website, TV production and an Interactive Learning Package, all of which will help to raise awareness of flooding among the public, policy makers and business. FLOWS will also enhance transnational cooperation, facilitating the exchange of knowledge on common issues and will help harmonise spatial strategies, decision-making and future policy development in the field of water management within and beyond the North Sea region.

Activities

An integrated approach is taken to help ensure the success of the FLOWS project, focusing on technical issues, practical issues, social issues, protection of cultural heritage and understanding how people perceive and react to living with flood risk. FLOWS is divided up into four packages; three linked work packages (technical, social work and spatial applications) and a fourth package aimed at the dissemination of information. The technical work package will see the development of good practice in the mapping and modelling of flood risk information for use in spatial planning and water management decision support structures. The social work package will develop good practice in communicating flood risk information to the public and communities for use in spatial planning decision support processes, investigate perceptions of flood risk within the different partner countries, develop alternative techniques for disseminating flood information and the retro-fitting of existing properties of different designs to help validate existing research. The spatial application work package will enable the design of progressive spatial planning decision support systems for sustainable development in flood risk areas. An inventory of existing procedures within the different partner countries will be produced and projects that implement decision support systems and good practice developed in the project will be showcased, including spatial plan case studies, design and construction of low cost flood control methods, design of community water structure plans, and the application of construction techniques for flood resilience and sustainability in a range of new build properties. Finally the results are to be disseminated through the use of a FLOWS website, the production of a final report, an international conference and a television project, all of which will be linked through a web-based database to enable viewing and analysis of data.

Reported Outcomes

FLOWS (Flood Plain Land Use Optimising Workable Sustainability) in cooperation with Norfolk County Council, however, is clearly demonstrating how improvements can be made immediately for residents living in flood risk areas with its approach of Flood Proofing Retrofits to existing properties. Aiming to demonstrate, that flood proofing can be achieved at reasonable costs, a residential property was retrofitted with flood proofing measures. This included raising the position of kitchen sockets, telephone and TV points above possible water levels as well as the installation of an alarm system which will provide a telephoned warning to all householders as soon as water levels begin to rise in nearby drainage channels. These measures enable inhabitants to react at an early stage, protect the property from floodwater and minimise damage if flooding does occur. Results of Flows have influenced flood management on the national level in Norway, the UK, and Germany as well as in Sweden. FLOWS will present their findings at the World Water Forum in Mexico this year. Throughout 2006 has seen some of the project outputs being delivered. The Lead Partner was invited to participate in a UK consultation organised by Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) on advice for sustainable drainage including discussion on future responsibilities for its implementation. Furthermore, the Lead Partner has submitted to the U K Royal Town and Planning Institute Award for project 3 C (vii): Showcasing sustainable water management and techniques (Sustainable Urban Drainage Management Systems) as a specific example of how planning and implementation can respond to the need to respond to climate change. The project has been selected for the long list and will be inspected on 30th of August 2006 and marked against the award criteria. Colleagues at Norwegian Water Ressources and Energy Directorate have proposed several changes to current guidelines in planning and development in flood prone areas in Norway. One example is that the Planning and Building Act only refers to building categories and so not advice on how to guidelines to land use categories or non-mapped areas. In the Netherlands, partners have established guidelines for water opportunity maps to make them sustianable for the future. The Netherlands district water boards in the North have been using water opportunity maps for urban and rural planning. The project work and concepts adopted have been also targeting the national level involvement in the participating countries. In the UK the project has been presented to the ODPM and it is hoped that it can support the revision of the Government Policy which sets out how flood risk is incorporated into spatial planning processes. In Sweden, the project has been used by a local Member of the Parliament in preparation a Bill on Flooding to the Parliament. Finally, the project was presented to the Norwegian Ministry of Environment. The project web site has been also officially launched during their first conference: www.flows.nu