Just the day before the Met Office upgraded Storm Éowyn to a rare red warning, ECI’s Prof Jim Hall, Infrastructure Systems Lead and Professor of Climate and Environmental Risk was speaking with government ministers about flood resilience.
Prof Hall, who is Commissioner of the National Infrastructure Commission, was sharing evidence on England's flood resilience with the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee, on a panel with three other leading specialists in environmental protection.
Addressing what needs to be done to protect coastal and inland areas from the impacts of more extreme weather and rising sea levels, Prof Hall identified the need for national standards for flood resilience remained an important consideration, but also highlighted the growing importance of resilience to the impacts of surface water flooding which is a complex issue to manage and forecast because of the local and fast nature of the intense weather that causes it.
He impressed on the committee the importance of government implementing schedule 3 of the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 - one of the Commission's key recommendations on surface water flooding – which would make sustainable drainage solutions the default for almost all new developments in England, and make the right to connect surface water runoff to public sewers conditional upon the drainage system being approved before construction.
On existing above ground flood risk grey assets, Prof Hall highlighted the importance of good asset management, and getting the balance right on funding between improving the maintenance of existing assets and the construction of new flood management assets.
On the management of underground drainage assets and recent public concerns about overflows, he highlighted the Commission's concern that a split responsibility for their management meant responsible organisations were not currently "purposeful enough" in addressing the issues of drainage overflow; here, the Commission recommended the introduction of costed, long term, joint plans between local authorities, drainage boards and water companies to effectively manage surface water flooding, which included local targets for risk reduction.
Watch a recording of the Commons Select Committee session on Parliament Live TV.