flood risk assessment

An in depth flood risk assessment resulting in full compliance with planning policy requires the assessment of flood levels (historical and future), local hydraulics, hydrology, flood defence structures, flood mitigation measures, local drainage capacity etc, which require significant time input and technical expertise.

If the FRA is poorly written the Environment Agency may hold objection to the Planning Application.  We ensure that our assessment report is comprehensive to cover the requirements of Planning Policy Statement No.25 (Technical Advice Note 15 in Wales).

The Environment Agency holds and publishes significant information of flooding data.  Most consultants will refer to indicative flood mapping available on the EA website.  There is often misunderstanding in how this data is presented. There are two levels of risk presented; one is the risk without defences, the second is the insurance zonation taking into account physical defences.

For coastal regions, major rivers and tributaries, flood level data is often held by the Environment Agency and can be purchased for use within the FRA, negating the need to undertake complex and expensive modelling.

The understanding of the purpose of the FRA is critical to minimising costs to
our clients. Often for transactional due-diligence where funders may have
concerns, a preliminary FRA may often be sufficient.