The Environment Agency has developed a new guide that will help flood risk managers identify and manage the uncertainty in their flood risk assessments and flood defence designs.
The new guide replaces the Environment Agency’s Fluvial Freeboard Guidance Note published in 2000. It is written for all flood risk management authorities, developers, and engineering consultants who work on their behalf.
Introducing the guide, the Agency said flood risk management is inherently uncertain, flooding events are highly random and the relative performance of different options to manage risk is only partially understood.
The use of freeboard during the design of a new flood defence, or as an allowance for setting finished floor levels in new development, will provide the designer with a degree of confidence that the project will perform as designed, the Agency said.
According to the EA, the new guide is needed to reflect the fact that over the 18 years since the last guide was written there has been a shift from flood defence to flood risk management. The Agency has also developed and advanced its models, tools and methods.
In addition, the methods that have been developed can be applied to all sources of flood risk – expanding the scope of the old guidance which only covered fluvial situations.
The Agency said the guide should be used when:
- planning for a new development
- appraising and designing a new flood scheme
- assessing the standard of protection of an existing flood defence
The Environment Agency will also use the guidance, which was developed by the Environment
Agency in collaboration with HaskoningDHV and Sayersand Partners, in the provision of advice on flood risk management and planning as well as in its own flood risk management projects.
Click here to download Accounting for residual uncertainty: an update to the fluvial freeboard guide
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