A majority of councils are allocating land for development on floodplains without 'transparently assessing' the potential for accommodating growth in other areas, according to a study by the government's climate change adviser.
By Ben Cook Wednesday, 11 July 2012
The Report in the headline is 'Climate Change - Is the UK preparing for flooding and water scarcity?' and it is an 'Adaptation Sub-Committee Progress Report 2012'.
The report Executive Summary advises:
...The Adaptation Sub-Committee (ASC) has a statutory duty to report regularly to
Parliament on the UK Government’s progress in delivering its adaptation programme.
In our first two reports, we developed and piloted a toolkit to assess progress in preparing
for climate change, including use of adaptation indicators.
In this report we apply the toolkit at a national level to two of the largest risks to emerge
from the UK’s first Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA): flooding and water scarcity.1
Many of the effects of climate change in the UK will be felt through changes in the
water cycle. Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and severity of floods and
droughts. Without action to prepare, this could lead to increasing costs and unnecessary
damage and disruption.
But what about Scotland and the Scottish Government? Well, there is a footnote on page 19 which states that:
2 UK National Adaptation Programme will cover England and reserved matters. The ASC also has a duty to report on progress in Wales, Scotland or Northern
Ireland if requested to do so.
The report then provides a link to, 'How well is Scotland preparing for climate change?' by the ASC November 2011.
I have not had time to read the reports fully but I have noted the following paragraphs on Land use planning starting on page 27, extracts below;
5.1 Land use planning
5.1.1 Importance to adaptation
The land use planning system is a priority area for adaptation action, because it is
a primary mechanism for determining how vulnerability to climate change can be
managed, particularly in towns and cities. Land use planning decisions can directly
help to increase resilience to climate risks, but can also lock future generations into a
development pathway that increases vulnerability or one that will be very costly to
maintain or reverse.
The land use planning system is one of the most important adaptation functions
delivered by local government. Local authorities are responsible for preparing the
strategic policies in the ‘development plan’, on which decisions about individual planning
applications are based. Policies set out what is expected of development in order for
planning permission to be obtained. They identify specific locations or set criteria for types
of locations that are suitable for particular land uses, and also stipulate particulars of the
design of new development. Local authorities also make decisions on individual planning
applications considering national and local planning policies to determine if a development
proposal is acceptable.
Local authorities face difficult trade-offs when planning the future of their localities.
The costs to the local economy of constraining development in areas at risk from climate
impacts could be significant. The options that they have available will be determined in
part by the availability and suitability of alternative sites for development.
From our analysis (Figure 5.1 and Table 5.1), national planning policy and strategic
guidance look to be well developed on adaptation through the National Planning
Framework.46 Local decision-makers are being required by the policy framework to
explicitly consider and account for the implications of climate change and adaptation
responses when planning for their communities. The high uptake of sustainable drainage
systems in new development suggests that the policy framework is having some
success here.
However, we were not able to find much evidence on the effectiveness of national
planning policy on influencing decisions on the location of new development. There
is a lack of data on recent trends on the amount of development in areas of flood risk or
behind eroding coastlines, which may be affecting the vulnerability of communities to
climate risks. We could also not find data on changes to the area of hard surfacing and
the amount of greenspace in urban areas.
The recently published Scotland Greenspace Map47 will provide a baseline against
which future changes in the amount and type of greenspace can be tracked (Box 5.1).
Urban greenspace provides a number of important adaptation services, including reducing
surface water run-off rates and the intensity of the urban heat island effect.48 Monitoring
changes to the extent and type of urban greenspace is therefore an important indicator of
preparedness for climate change.
The analysis and summary of findings wrt to planning continue for several pages and as always it is certainly worth dipping into the report to gain insight.
It seems to me that record keeping is not a strong point when it comes to potentially contentious issues such as the use of prime agricultural land or building in areas of flood risk.
What do you think?
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