CIEEM response to the Flood Resilience Strategy consultation

Here you will find our response to the Scottish Government consultation on the Flood Resilience Strategy (closed 13th August 2024).

This response was developed by our Scotland Policy Group.

Key points:

  • Support for Flood Resilience: CIEEM supports shifting from fixing flooding problems to creating flood-resilient places. This should prioritise using Nature-based Solutions (NbS) and Blue-Green Infrastructure (BGI), with hard engineering methods where necessary, and supported relocation of some of the most-at-risk households and communities a final resort.
  • Benefits of NbS and BGI: These offer multiple benefits, including for biodiversity, climate change mitigation, and enhanced community well-being. They can help manage water flow, storage, and interception at catchment-scale, reducing reliance on hard defences.
  • Integration with Other Policies: Flood resilience should be interconnected with policies on climate change, planning, nature recovery, and sustainable agriculture to achieve co-benefits and to leverage existing funding from diverse sources.
  • Just Transition and Green Jobs: Increasing NbS and BGI can create high-value green jobs, contributing to a Just Transition. CIEEM’s Green Jobs for Nature initiative highlights career opportunities in the nature-based sector.
  • Community Involvement: Inclusive decision-making is crucial for equitable flood resilience and for utilising the valuable knowledge of local people. Communities should be involved in planning and decision-making processes, with support from local and national governments.
  • Support for Communities: Communities need access to funding, expertise, and involvement in decision-making to effectively participate in flood resilience planning. For those households and communities where there are no feasible flood resilience options, relocation may be necessary with adequate support, for example, state purchase of homes on land that can be reutilised for NbS or BGI.
  • Designing Flood-Resilient Places: Policies should require flood resilience components in new developments and incentivise retrofitting existing buildings. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) should be integrated into site designs from an early stage in development and connected to wider Nature Networks.