The Scottish Government

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INTRODUCTION

The Scottish Flood Defence Asset Database Project

The Scottish Executive ( SE) is investing in improving its understanding of flooding in Scotland. Recommendations made in recent reports on climate change ^1,2 identified a need for a register of fluvial and coastal defences containing detailed records of the assets, the defended areas and number of properties protected.

The Indicative River and Coastal Flood Map Scotland (2006) was made available on the 1 November 2006 showing the 100, 200 and 1000 year flood outlines, but without account being made for the presence of flood defences. The new maps therefore show locations that currently benefit from flood prevention schemes as being at risk from flooding and Scottish Executive wish to determine the areas that are currently protected.

The Scottish Executive ( SE) has funded 72 Flood Prevention Schemes since the Flood Prevention (Scotland) Act 1961 ³. All schemes promoted under the 1961 Act are described as Flood Prevention Schemes, however, due to the nature of flooding most Flood Prevention Schemes provide management of flooding rather than prevent flooding. This project was commissioned to provide a condition and asset database and to establish the defended areas for each of the schemes. Specific objectives were:

• Construct an electronic database of river and coastal flood prevention schemes and provide a GIS interface
• Record the condition of the defences
• Show the area benefiting from the flood defences
• Define defended and undefended areas for a range of return period events
• Establish the current standard of protection
• Determine the number and value of properties benefiting from the defences

The database includes the detailed location, type and condition of defences, the flood outlines, defended areas, defence photos, as built drawings of the scheme and details of the scheme including information on the level of protection, construction costs and date of construction, benefits in terms of numbers of properties protected and the value of these, scheme contacts and the Local Authority area, the maintenance regime and frequency of inspection.

It is intended that the defended areas will eventually be shown as an additional layer on the flood maps. The database and maps will be available to all the Local Authorities, SEPA and Scottish Executive as an integrated flood risk information system over the web. The database also identifies flood defences that the Local Authorities have knowledge of that have not been constructed as a formal Flood Prevention Scheme ( FPS).

The current project calls for fluvial and coastal defences to be recorded but does not refer specifically to schemes promoted as erosion or coastal protections schemes under the Coastal Protection Act 1949 which may also provide flood protection. It is likely that a number of Coastal Protection schemes will provide an element of flood protection.

In order to populate the database over half the schemes were reviewed in detail and a report on those schemes is also available.

Website and GIS Interface

This website has been developed the as part of the Scottish Flood Defence and Asset Database project commissioned by the SE. The work was carried out by JBA.

The aim of this website is to provide users with a tool to view the FPS and their associated assets within Scotland. This aim has been achieved by developing a web based Geographic Information System ( GIS) through which a user can locate and view information on flood and coastal assets in Scotland.

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