Adapting Environment Agency Incident Response for Climate Resilience

Lead Research Organisation: Newcastle University
Department Name: Sch of Engineering

Abstract

The Environment Agency (EA) is a Category 1 responder under the Civil Contingencies Act, which means that the EA must assess risk, plan and act on flood and drought emergencies. There is concern that climate change could alter the pattern and frequency of incidents (currently ~80 major incidents each year) and the EA needs to better understand how its capacity to respond may be affected. While incident records are kept locally, there is limited national strategic understanding of the current size, frequency and pattern of incident response or how this is likely to change in the future. Through this project we aim to understand the current and future flood and drought incident response demands on the EA. This evidence will inform strategic planning and operational incident response models. In 2020 the EA will establish small core incident response teams for the first time but will still rely on staff volunteers setting aside their day jobs during incidents. Better understanding of future demands could change the way the EA operates, building resilience across its remit but also affecting how it works with other national organisations in supporting England during floods and droughts. The work will be undertaken in four work packages that will result in deliverables of broader use to the climate resilience community (Lead Local Flood Authorities, DEFRA, water companies, academics). These deliverables are 1) a climate resilient incident response synthesis report to inform strategic thinking, 2) national statistics of incident response 3) a set of regional hydrological indices/thresholds that trigger incident response and 4) projections of future flood and drought incident response frequencies.

Publications

10 25 50
 
Description - We have explored the data held by the Environment Agency in their flood and drought incident response.
- The triggers of flood and drought incidents are varied and complex.
- Changes to high flows are not the only variable worth investigating with respect to flood incident response.
- UKCP18 projections show regionally variable changes to flood and increases to drought incident response in the future. Projections show an increased frequency of concurrent incident response across the country.
Exploitation Route This has been a first look at the EA's incident response data. There is much still to be examined working with the EA, particularly in terms of exploring supplementary datasets.
Sectors Environment

 
Description The report written for the Environment Agency has been used to inform the new Incident response team's work and strategy.
First Year Of Impact 2022
Sector Environment
Impact Types Policy & public services

 
Description R2-D2: Resilience to Recovery - Data for Disasters; a scoping study to assess satellite applications for emergency management in North East England
Amount £19,937 (GBP)
Organisation UK Space Agency 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 01/2023 
End 04/2023
 
Description Environment Agency 
Organisation Environment Agency
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Public 
PI Contribution I am embedded in the EA's Climate Change and Resource Efficiency team. I contribute to weekly team meetings am conducting all of the research and modelling work in the collaboration.
Collaborator Contribution I am embedded in the EA's Climate Change and Resource Efficiency team. Through weekly meetings with the whole team, I am learning about the culture of the EA. My collaborators are supporting my with networking throughout the organisation, dedicating time to interviews, workshop, data gathering and feedback on my analysis and modelling work.
Impact There was a significant delay to the start of this project due to COVID and other reasons. I am only 2.5 months into the project so far, so have no significant outputs so far.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Climate matters video 
Form Of Engagement Activity Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact In the run up to COP26, the Centre for Life produced a series of videos showcasing research that is happening in the North East linked to Climate Change. The videos were published across the Centre fo Life's website and social media. EL featured in a video highlighting what work is being done in the North East to measure, monitor, mitigate and adapt to climate change.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxrhru96LBs&list=PLkavA_QBfSReDCUjiFd_zSyVtIepRYWIo
 
Description Featured scientist in NHM COP26 workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Schools
Results and Impact The Natural History Museum co-ordinated a series of workshops aligned with COP26 themes to support young people (15-25) in voicing their opinions about the climate crisis by providing them with science and public speaking training. EL contributed to the second workshop focussing on climate models and how they can be used to understand climate impacts and possible solutions. EL gave a presentation of her modelling work and answered participant questions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Newcastle research showcase 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Undergraduate students
Results and Impact EL presented in the engineering research showcase for students. In the most recent NSS, students highlighted that they wanted to engage more with active research areas. The event was held on Thisisengineering Day and was in-keeping with COP26 on the theme of climate.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021