Spatial coherence - risk of widespread flooding
A scoping study that develops a method for improving emergency planning scenarios and the assessment of the risk and likelihood of widespread flood events.
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Details
This scoping study was carried out on behalf of the Environment Agency and Defra between 2007 and 2011. A team of flood risk and statistical scientists developed and tested a method for assessing the risk of widespread flooding over large areas. This method could lead to improved assessments of the risk and likelihood of damaging widespread flood events and could be used when generating emergency planning scenarios.
This method will make it possible to consider important flood risk management questions, such as:
- the chance of coastal or river flooding causing a certain annual economic loss for an area
- the chance of a ‘catastrophic’ flood event in England that could overload emergency responders
- how to create realistic emergency planning scenarios
The findings from this scoping study provide useful evidence and examples of how the risk of widespread flooding could be captured for wider flood risk assessment purposes.