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1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction
This study has been commissioned by Scottish Executive
Environment Group, Air Climate and Engineering Division as
a short scoping study to identify and assess the financial
and non-financial impacts of extreme weather experienced in
Scotland during August 2004.
1.2 Background
Weather systems experienced by Scotland during August
2004 were the remnants of Atlantic hurricanes, resulting in
heavy localised rainfall predominantly falling in a band
from south west to north east Scotland.
The event involved a number of public and private bodies
and was gauged as severe both as a flooding event and in
the demands placed upon the responding bodies.
Scottish Water received 3000 calls in August compared to
a normal 500
3.
Fire Brigades and Police Services needed to respond to a
number of flood events, Tayside fire service alone logged
148 calls in early August and 94 in the later event.
The
SEPA Communications Centre in Perth
records all Floodline messages for
SEPA and posts messages on its website.
Floodline was launched in November 2001 and as of autumn
2004
4, August 2004 was the busiest month since the launch,
with 279 flood watches and 53 warnings posted and 7 severe
flood warnings issued. Throughout the month the Floodline
service had 94,000 customer contacts (on 11 August alone
there were 24,746 page impressions of the web site).
1.3 Objective
The objective of this report as outlined in the research
specification is to use the best available information and
where appropriate robust and credible assumptions to:
- Identify the full range of impacts of the extreme
weather event - financial and non-financial; and
- Estimate the cost of the recent extreme weather
event, and
- Propose a method to enable the costs of any such
future events to be captured with a greater degree of
accuracy.
1.4 Report Structure
This report has been divided into 6 chapters. They are
as follows:
- Introduction - This puts the study in
context and summarises the background and data
sources.
- Impacts of flooding in August 2004 -
This chapter documents the data search and summaries
flooding experienced in August 2004.
- Flood Characterisation - This chapter
introduces data requested from
SEPA and presentation of analysis
carried out. Including summaries of data published by
various bodies including
NWRA and the Met Office.
- Economic Assessment - This chapter
documents the economic assessment carried out with the
aim of defining the cost of flooding for Scotland
during August 2004.
- Environmental Standards - In this
chapter the Bathing Waters Directive and Discharges to
Water are discussed.
- Findings and Conclusions - The
findings of this study are discussed and commendations
made.
1.5 Study Approach
This study comprises collection of readily available
primary (hydrometric data collected from gauging stations)
and secondary (derived) data. It is likely that data will
become available that could enhance the cost analysis or
gauging the severity of the flooding. In August 2004 and
during this study it has become apparent that as there is
no central body responsible for flooding data is often not
collected or collated.
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