Spatial planning and floodplain restoration - in the "Pitts"?

Karen Potter  (University of Liverpool - karen.potter@liverpool.ac.uk)

Proceedings paper from the 10th Annual River Restoration Centre Network Conference, 1st - 2nd April 2009

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Abstract

The development of floodplains for agriculture, settlements and industry, followed by the need to engineer flood defences to protect this investment, has led to the loss of approximately 98% of “natural” rivers and their floodplains in Europe (Blackwell & Maltby, 2005). The impact of this large scale uncoupling of rivers from their functional floodplain is evident; fluvial flooding events in recent decades have become more frequent, damaging and costly (Moss & Monstadt, 2007). International research has begun to influence thinking in the UK: “floodplain restoration” being a pre-eminent emerging solution to increased flood risk. Restoring the floodplain in selected areas can reduce the flood risk to development downstream.

Despite support growing markedly in policy circles; floodplain restoration schemes for flood risk management are still few and of a small scale. In “Learning Lessons from the 2007 Floods” (Cabinet Office, 2007), many of the consultation responses to the Pitt Review felt that this approach was not being translated into results on the ground and more effort was needed to encourage implementation, including finding and acquiring land to make it a reality.

Although the limited connectivity between land use and flood protection is a vital constraint to floodplain restoration, the relationship between the UK land use planning system and flood risk management has been likened to a “fish out of water” (Howe and White, 2004). Drawing on experience in practice and academic research, this paper considers the challenges inherent to the integration of Spatial Planning with floodplain restoration, as a key component to decreasing flood risk and associated social and economic costs in the UK. “Upstreaming” planning research, on a level platform with the natural and engineering science agendas, has been identified as an important factor in bridging the persistent research/policy/practice gap in the field of floodplain restoration. Research aiming to facilitate the integration of spatial planning and floodplain restoration has been embarked upon by the author as part of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded PhD, concluding in 2011.

Keywords

culture change; floodplain restoration; integration; spatial planning