Future flood risk management in the UK

Abstract

The Foresight Future Flooding project has analysed future flood risk in a scenario framework for the whole of the UK. The analysis predicts increasing flood risk unless current flood management policies and investment levels are changed, with up to a twentyfold increase in economic risk by the 2080s. The increase is attributable to a combination of climate change and increasing value of household, industrial and infrastructure assets. Potential responses are assessed in terms of the three pillars of sustainability: social, environmental and economic. The work described has formed much of the evidence base for the new government strategy for flood risk management in England, ‘Making space for water’.