Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 implementation: report to the Scottish Parliament - 2020

2. Scottish Government Progress

Scottish Government has taken forward or updated several guidance documents and policies to help shape the way forward within flood risk management. Scottish Government have also funded and/or managed flood risk management projects which help to reduce flood risk and increase knowledge and science for the future.

Actions that affect one part of a river, coast or estuary can have consequences elsewhere. This means that flood management actions are most effective when they are planned and coordinated within catchments and along coasts in a way that is uninhibited by administrative boundaries.

Adopting a catchment approach to flood risk management within policy and guidance requires an appreciation of catchment and coastal processes, and an understanding of how best to manage the sources and pathways of flood water. This includes looking at how the magnitude and duration of a flood can be managed, e.g. by creating and restoring natural features of the landscape, including wetlands, woodlands, functional flood plains and dunes.

2.1 Flood Risk Management Funding

Since 2008, the Scottish Government has made available funding of £42 million per year to enable Local Authorities to deliver appropriate flood protection measures.

In 2016 agreement was reached between Scottish Ministers and COSLA on a new strategic funding plan for flood protection schemes. The agreement guaranteed was that the level of flooding capital grant within the local government settlement is set at a minimum of £42m per annum, for ten years.

It was agreed that from 2016/17 onwards, the flooding capital grant should be allocated on the basis of a hybrid model whereby 80% of the £42m grant is allocated to large scale projects and distributed according to the prioritisation of flood schemes set out in the 14 FRM Strategies published in December 2015. 20% is allocated to all 32 councils to contribute to the other elements contained in the FRM Strategies and Plans. This gives local authorities the certainty needed to deliver the actions set out in their Local Flood Risk Management Plans and will help to deliver 40 new flood protection schemes in the current 2016-22 FRM cycle.

In August 2020, the Programme for Government also committed an additional £150 million over the next five years, from 2021-22, to support flood risk management actions. The distribution of the additional £150 million and future funding arrangements are subject to discussion by the FRM Funding Sub-Group, who will provide recommendations to Ministers in 2021.

Scottish Government's Programme for Government 2020-21 also committed £12 million to coastal change adaptation, to be allocated over four years from 2022-23. These funds will be available for works to protect natural sea defences such as sand dunes systems and in 2021 options will be considered for the allocation of the funds.

2.2 Guidance and Policy

2.2.1 Surface Water Management

It is widely recognised that sustainable surface water management ensures that above and below ground sections of the drainage system can work in unison to deliver benefits for flood risk management, people, the water environment and biodiversity, while also making our urban areas more adaptable to future changes and more resilient to climate change.

Scottish Government has identified the need to improve how we manage surface water in Scotland and in 2020 has been considering policy improvements to reduce the burden on drainage systems, lessen the impact of floods and increase the uptake of blue-green actions.

"Water Resilient Places - A Policy Framework for Surface Water Management and Blue-Green Cities" is being developed to support the Programme for Government commitments to work together to increase Scotland's use of blue-green infrastructure for drainage and flood management and to review the approach to blue-green cities; with publication in early 2021.

The policy framework is centred on place-making as a means of encouraging a wider range of stakeholders to adapt their actions to contribute to water resilience. The aim of the work is to support the transition to water resilient places where communities can continue to thrive as climate change impacts play out over the coming decades.

2.2.2 Flooding and Land Use Planning

Consideration of flood risk within land use planning is essential and Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) recognises this by promoting a precautionary approach to managing flood risk. This approach should take into account all sources of flooding and the predicted effects of climate change, and should be used when preparing development plans and determining planning applications.

The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 was approved in June 2019. A refresh of the National Planning Framework and Scottish Planning Policy is now under way and is to consider how planning can effectively reduce both current and future flood risk.

Scottish Government published a Position Statement on the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) in 2020 that outlined issues to be addressed within the framework. All views received in response to the Position Statement are being taken into account to inform the draft NPF4, which will be laid in parliament in 2021.

2.3 Flood Risk Management Conference and FRM Workshops

The Scottish Government continues to fund an annual conference, hosted by SNIFFER, to bring Scotland's flood risk management community together. In 2020, this two-day, in-person conference had a key theme of managing flood risk in the context of the climate emergency and acted as a platform to exchange knowledge, share best practice and explore key issues experienced by flood risk practitioners.

Although face-to-face meetings were severely limited from March 2020 onwards, several Scottish organisations continued to organise and attend virtual knowledge sharing events. Scottish Government funding allowed SNIFFER to run knowledge exchange workshops throughout the year, including a FRM Practitioners "Check-in".

2.4 Research and Projects

• Dynamic Coast 2 – Scotland's National Coastal Change Assessments – The Dynamic Coast projects seeks to plan and adapt in advance of greater impacts from climate change along the coast and improve our understanding of coastal processes.
• EU Interreg North Sea Region Building with Nature project – Scottish Government, Tweed Forum and SEPA continued to engage with partners on the project, which aims to demonstrate how measures that work with natural processes can manage flood and coastal erosion risks whilst enhancing ecosystem services.
• Eddleston Water Project – A project partnership led by the Tweed Forum and supported by organisations such as Scottish Government, that aims to reduce flood risk and restore the river for the benefit of the local community and wildlife. The project is also a long-term study of the implementation and effectiveness of Natural Flood Management (NFM) measures to reduce flood risk. In 2020, Tweed Forum were awarded the prestigious RSPB Nature of Scotland award for their contribution to targeted and strategic riparian woodland creation.
• Integrating Natural Capital into Flood Risk Management Appraisal - A Scottish Government funded report which used the Eddleston Water as a case study and developed recommendations on its primary aim of identifying how multiple benefits in the form of natural capital and ecosystem services can be most effectively integrated into current and future decision-making processes for appraisal of flood risk management measures in Scotland.
• Understanding the Social Impacts of Flooding – A CREW commissioned research project on behalf of the Scottish Government with an aim to better understand the long term impacts of flooding. The research included face-to-face interviews over three consecutive years with residents in Ballater and Garioch, who were severely affected by flooding in the winter of 2015/16.
• Property Flood Resilience – A Baseline Study (Climate X Change) A research report providing an up-to-date baseline assessment of the potential for Property Flood Resilience (PFR) across Scotland. The findings will support the Scottish Government and its partners in the Property Flood Resilience Delivery Group deliver actions within the "Living with Flooding: action plan", published in 2019.
• SG Government Rural Payments Agri-Environment Climate (AEC) Scheme - The Scheme compensates land managers for implementing measures on their land that can help increase flood water storage, and aims to promote land management practices that protect and enhance Scotland's environment, improve water quality, manage flood risk and mitigate and adapt to climate change. www.ruralpayments.org/topics/all-schemes/agri-environment-climate-scheme/