Committee for Regional
Development: Schemes to
Alleviate Flooding and
Stormwater
A response from the FWTF, February 2016
The Northern Ireland Freshwater Taskforce (FWTF) represents a range of organisations working
together to ensure that Northern Ireland preserves and improves freshwater eco-systems by
encouraging Government and wider society to adopt a sustainable and integrated approach to water
management. Members of the FWTF include: Northern Ireland Environment Link, RSPB, Ulster
Wildlife, the National Trust, Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust, Friends of the Earth, Ulster Angling
Federation and The River Trusts.
The FWTF welcomes the opportunity to engage with the Committee for Regional Development on
the important issue of approaches to flood alleviation in Northern Ireland. At the outset, the FWTF
would emphasise that, in managing flood risk, it will be crucial to work with natural processes and
not against them. While this short response will largely deal with some principles of natural flood
alleviations, we have enclosed

a report produced by the RSPB and WWT, which makes the case for the multiple benefits of
sustainable drainage approaches and provides specific case studies
guidance on housing developments produced by RSPB, entitled, ‘New homes for nature, for
people and for the planet’
a short note from Lough Erne Heritage on flood management in the Erne catchment.


We hope this will be of value to the Committee.
A Strategic Approach
The factors in determining the nature and extent of inland flooding (beyond simple intensity and
duration of precipitation events) are complex, including antecedent soil moisture conditions,
hydrological connectivity, deforestation and removal of green space, urbanisation (and associated
hydrological characteristics), river channel alterations, and land drainage / management practices. It
should be noted, then, that the ways in which we use our and manage our land have a very
significant bearing on flooding and its attenuation or exacerbation. In this context, we encourage
government
to
pursue
a
‘Land
Strategy’
for
Northern
Ireland
(see
http://www.nienvironmentlink.org/cmsfiles/Towards-a-Land-Strategy-for-NI_2015-MainReport.pdf). This call for a Land Strategy outlines some key principles, some of which are particularly
relevant to flood risk management:


Land should be recognised as multi-functional and opportunities for deriving multiple
benefits should be encouraged and incentivised.
Where land is highly suitable for a key primary function (for example food production,
flood management, tourism and recreation, carbon storage), this function should be
recognised in decision-making.


Different ecosystems provide different benefits, though it should be recognised that they
are not discrete entities existing in isolation from each other. It is important to recognise
that decisions by individual land managers can have implications at a broader scale which
can affect the delivery of those benefits.
The opportunities and threats posed by climate change must be central to decisions about
how land is used in order to contribute effectively to climate change adaptation and
mitigation.
In the context of all of the above, interaction with the planning system and engagement with
strategic planning policy for Northern Ireland is vital. It is important that the key personnel in central
government engage with the Community Planning process and LDPs in the new Councils. If we are to
begin to get to grips with flooding issues, these principles must be adopted and promoted across
government – including engagement with planners at Local Council level. The concept of resilience
(to environmental extremes, to environmental change) must be an integral part of public policy and
planning in NI going forward. The above approach to understanding the connectedness of land and
landscape means that any flood alleviation scheme should have a keen awareness of downstream
impacts of various activities (for example, agriculture, construction), and factor these in, accordingly.
Green Infrastructure
While Green Infrastructure is not a flooding panacea, it does go towards tackling the problem in
some areas – and at the same time provide many other benefits for society. In terms of Flood Risk
Management, we would particularly emphasise the potential importance of green infrastructure
networks in urban areas / areas with urban hydrological characteristics. The concept of ‘ecosystem
services’ is very important in an urban context (often unrecognised). By ‘ecosystem services’ we
mean the benefits that flow to society from the environment – the good things that nature does for
us. In the context of urban space, this is perhaps better conceptualised as ‘green infrastructure’
(using the environment to provide solutions to societal and economic problems). The Connswater
Community Greenway is a good contemporary example of this, providing flood alleviation while at
the same time meeting many other societal objectives.
The ecosystem services delivered in urban areas are largely ‘invisible’ to the current planning
system, and are therefore undervalued and under-protected. In this context, it may be useful to
develop a green infrastructure strategy for urban areas in NI. As such, we are pleased to see the
Committee for Regional Development exploring further potential for SuDs in Northern Ireland, as a
crucial mechanism toward dealing with surface water and managing urban hydrology.
Significant research is being carried out to understand the impacts of climate change on urban
hydrology1 (coming from the combined work of those carrying out downscaled climate projections
and hydrological modelling). This work suggests that prolonged and intense winter precipitation will
result in increased output of surface runoff, throughflow, groundwater flow, and river and marine
outfalls. Even in summer, surface runoff is expected to increase as a result of climate change (likely
to be linked to the intensity of late summer rainfall events associated with increased convective
activity). We would stress that in all flooding scenarios, natural functions and processes should be
given space to work. Nature buffers against flooding more effectively than man-made infrastructure,
therefore we should seek to work with nature and not against it – by this we mean allowing natural
1
Poff, NL, Brown, CM, Grantham, TE, Matthews, JH, Palmer, MA, Spence, CM, Wilby, RL, Haasnoot, M,
Mendoza, GF, Dominique, KC, Baeza, A. 2016. Sustainable water management under future uncertainty with
eco-engineering decision scaling. Nature Climate Change, 6(1), pp.25-34, ISSN: 1758-678X. DOI:
10.1038/nclimate2765
Wilby, R. 2007. A review of climate change impacts on the built environment. Built Environment 33:31-45
processes to work unhindered by societal encroachment. This concept is captured in the draft NI
Long Term Water Strategy as ‘designing for exceedance’.
We would urge Rivers Agency to guard against an over-reliance on hard engineering. Generally
speaking, the FWTF supports flood management measures that make space for water, and would
encourage that these spaces are natural/green in character (because of the multiple benefits
associated with green space in terms of health and welling, resilience, recreation and public
amenities, climate change impacts and adaptation, heritage importance). SuDS are an opportunity to
deliver these kinds of benefits on the ground (though we recognise that this is only part of the
solution). In the context of making space for water, ‘planning for exceedance’ in the system is
crucial, and should be manifested on the ground in all flood risk areas of NI.
Hard engineering
Mitigated hard engineering
Heavily modified
-
Soft engineering/restoration
Natural processes
‘NFRM’
(Semi-) natural
+
river or coastline
ecosystem
Flood walls,
Green roofs,
Wet washlands
Upland grip blocking,
Natural
pump drainage,
permeable paving
balancing ponds,
floodplain woodland,
floodplain
dry washlands
swales, regulated tidal bank re-alignment,
/coastal zone
exchange
(minimal intervention)
re-meandering
Floodplain disconnected
Floodplain connected
Floodplain connected
from channel/sea , except in
with channel/sea with high
with channel/sea with high
exceptional circumstances
degree of control
degree of freedom
A ‘sliding scale’ of flood risk management measures (with examples)
FWTF role
The FWTF can work in partnership with government as a ‘knowledge broker’ to convey key messages
in understandable ways and raise awareness of flood risk and a spectrum of management
approaches. Another way to disseminate knowledge is through, for example, angling clubs operating
in different areas across NI.
We suspect that there is a general lack of understanding (especially, perhaps, public) around the
potential benefits of natural and sustainable flood risk management. The current work of the
Committee, and general interest in flood alleviation schemes, present an opportunity to address
this, and to tackle concerns that people may have about any reduction in hard engineered solutions.
As stated above, the FWTF can help in the communication of these issues.
Dr Stephen McCabe CGeog (Geomorph), FRGS
Senior Policy Officer
Northern Ireland Environment Link