5. Engaging at National level with governments

Question 1

What does mainstreaming DRR involve? (three things)

Answer 1

1) Governments prioritising DRR in their national policies
2) Incorporating DRR into plans and programmes for development in all sectors or fields
3) Increasing prior investment in DRR

Question 2

What are the 6 elements of IEM (UK Integrated Emergency Management)?

Answer 2

1) Anticipation
2) Assessment
3) Prevention
4) Preparation
5) Response
6) Recovery Management

Question 3

What are Category 1 (core) responders?

Answer 3

Responders are organisations involved in most emergencies at the local level.

Question 4

What are the civil protection duties of Category 1 responders?

Answer 4

• Risk assessment
• Business continuity management (BCM)
• Emergency planning
• Maintaining public awareness and arrangements to warn/inform/advise public
• Share info and co-operate with other responders
• (local authorities only) provision fo advice to commercial and voluntary sectors.

Question 5

What are Category 2 (co-operating) responders?

Answer 5

Likely to be heavily involved in some emergencies in their own sectors and are required to coordinate and share information with Category 1.

Question 6

Category 1 & 2 responders form LRFs, what are LRFs? And what 2 organisations do they have a role under?

Answer 6

Local Resilience Forums

• National Resilience Capabilities Programme (NRCP)
• Emergency Response and Recovery

Question 7

What do LRFs do?

Answer 7

Compile community Risk Registers and support Category 1 and 2 responders in their duties under the IEM framework.

Question 8

What are the 6 main sources of evidence that can support Policy-makers and Implementing agencies?

Answer 8

1) National Risk Assessment (classified) and associated National Risk Register (public)
2) NHP (The Natural Hazards Partnership), provide info/research/analysis on natural hazards and risk impacts
3) SAGE (Scientific Advice Group for Emergencies), can be convened in national emergency to inform Cabinet Office Briefing Room committee (COBR)
4) Commissioned reports e.g. Foresight Projects and The Pitt Review
5) Flood Risk Regulations (2009) to implement the EU Floods Directive within UK law
6) Events generating public debate on flood management

Question 9

What is the NRR?

How often is it developed?

Answer 9

• National Risk Register of Civil Emergencies

- Developed every 2 years to cover events that could plausibly happen in the next 5 years.

Question 10

What is the NHP and why was it set up?
What does it comprise of?
What does it produce?

Answer 10

• Natural Hazard’s Partnership
• Pitt review 2007 found that hazard info and warning were too disjointed and science not easily transferred into practice
• establish a forum for the exchange of natural hazards knowledge, ideas, expertise, intelligence and best practice; provide timely and consistent advice to government and emergency responders for civil emergencies and disaster response; develop new services to assist in disaster response preparedness
• 26 gov departments and agencies across the UK (supported by Cabinet Office)
• Produces a DHA (Daily Hazard Assessment) - overview of next 5 days available to Cat 1 & 2 responders, science and hazard notes, NRA and NRRs and HIMs, development of Hazard Impact Models (HIMs).

Question 11

What does HIM stand for, and what are they designed to do?

What are their inputs?

What are they different from?

What ensures consistency between HIMs?

Answer 11

Designed to be run quickly by end-users to support operational decisions before and during events - driven by meteorological inputs, incorp UK pop and infrastructure data to give impacts and risk (not financial losses).

Different from ‘black-box’ CAT models used for risk financing at global scales - these are computationally intensive, requiring catalogues of probabilistic hazard simulations, detailed vulnerability informations, and calculations of financial losses.

Hazard Impact Framework (HIF) - ensure consistency and alignment between HIMs

Question 12

Define River (fluvial) Flooding

Answer 12

When a watercourse cannot cope with the water draining into it from the surrounding land

Question 13

Define Coastal Flooding

Answer 13

From a combination of high tides and stormy conditions and sometimes from atmospheric low pressure systems

Question 14

Define Surface Water (pluvial) Flooding

Answer 14

Intense rainfall exceeds local drainage capacity (more difficult to predict timing and extent than fluvial floods)

Question 15

Define Sewer Flooding

Answer 15

Sewers are overwhelmed due to heavy rainfall or blockages

Question 16

Define Groundwater Flooding

Answer 16

GW levels rise above the ground surface (typically in areas with extensive chalk or sandstone aquifers, or local sand or river gravels in valleys underlain by less permeable rocks)

Question 17

What is used to predict surface water flooding?

Answer 17

Probabilistic rainfall forecasts converted into surface water runoff using CEH G2G model to give a SWF footprint

Question 18

What is the UK’s national platform for DRR

Answer 18

Civil Contingencies Act (2004) and the national platform is the Cabinet office

Question 19

Definition of impact used in HIMs

Answer 19

Impact - defines the total effects of a single event: surface water flooding, high winds or landslides

Question 20

Definition of risk used in HIMs

Answer 20

Risk incorporates uncertainty via probabilistic distributions of hazard severities, exposure levels and vulnerability characteristics

Question 21

Flood risk models all use which conceptual framework

Answer 21

Source-Pathway-Receptor model

Drivers –> Sources –> Pathways –> Receptors

Question 22

5 scales of responsibilities in the UK? i.e. magnitude of the event vs. who sorts it out

Answer 22

Single scene - Local response only
Cross force - Local response with gov offices providing two-way channel to central govt/LGD
Regional coverage - Significant: LEVEL 1; LGD led central response. COBR not involved.
Cross-region - Serious: LEVEL 2; Coordinated central response led by LGD from COBR
National coverage - Catastrophe: LEVEL 3; Direction from COBR

Question 23

What is WWNP and how does the EA define it?

Why do we need to employ WWNP

Answer 23

Working with natural processes

‘Taking action to manage fluvial and coastal flood and coastal erosion risk by protecting, restoring and emulating the natural regulating function of catchments, rivers, floodplains and coasts.

The Pitt Review noted that flood and coastal risks could not be managed simply by building larger hard-engineered defences – softer, more sustainable approaches were needed. EA should work with others to identify rural and urban solutions.

Question 24

3 main WWNP techniques

Answer 24

Flood storage - The act of deliberately retaining or storing water on a floodplain during a flood event and subsequently its slow release back into a watercourse in order to reduce the risk of flooding

SUDS - Management practices and control structures (commonly in urban areas) designed to control surface water run-off as close to its origin as possible, before it enters a watercourse

Managed realignment - The deliberate flooding of an area that was not previously exposed to flooding by breaching or removing flood defences, to achieve flood and coastal risk management benefits as well as other benefits (e.g. habitat creation)

Question 25

What are the three key goals of the Geotechnical Control Office?

Answer 25

1. Minimise risks from new developments - safety standards and geotechnical control, land use planning
2. Reduce risk by improving stability of existing slopes - slope information system, maintenance and upgrading
3. Reduce risks by minimising possible consequences - squatter resettlement, landslip warning system

Question 26

How to improve slope stability?

Answer 26

1) reduce the driving forces; reduce slope gradient, improve the drainage
2) increase the resisting forces; reinforce with soil nails, rock anchors, geotextiles etc. or retain with gravity walls
3) replace; excavate and reform with a denser soil surface layer

Question 27

How does the new priority ranking system for man-made slopes work?

Answer 27

total score = instability score X consequence score