In June 2019 Sniffer held two workshops on Climate change allowances for flood risk assessment in land use planning in Dundee and Glasgow. The workshops gathered more than a 100 professionals from local authority planners and flood risk managers as well as consultants involved in preparing flood risk assessments to explore new guidance published by SEPA in May 2019.

The workshops included a welcome from Antje Branding from Scottish Government and Ruth Wolstenholme from Sniffer as well as presentations on:

• the context in terms of climate change and what it means for Scotland by Joseph Hagg (Sniffer);
• introduction of the guidance by Katherine Lakeman;
• evidence base that underpins the guidance by Fiona McLay;
• case studies and visuals of what allowances look like in mapped form by Elaine Fotheringham;

The afternoon focused on an interactive group exercises, during which participants shared their response to the guidance, considered the main benefits and challenges and formulated and prioritised ideas for improving the guidance.

Key points across both workshops include the support for:

• Making the guidance a requirement, not ‘just guidance’.
• Consistency in how the guidance is applied across Scotland.
• Greater alignment with other guidance and legislation including local development plans.
• Targeted training for other key stakeholders, such as house builders, and general awareness raising of the science that underpins the guidance.
• Keeping guidance up-to-date as and when new climate science information becomes available, but balancing this with the need for a clear programme/cycle of updates/reviews to provide certainty to stakeholders, allowing them to plan ahead.

The workshops are part of the FRM activities funded by Scottish Government and delivered by Sniffer.

For more details about the workshop and the next steps, please check out our workshop report.