Natural flood management
What is natural flood management?
Natural flood management, or NFM, considers the hydrological processes across the whole catchment of a river or along a stretch of coast to identify where measures can best be applied, with a focus on increasing water retention capacities. NFM interventions can be are protection measures (Layer 1) to increase flood resilience using non-structure measures or engineering such as building with nature. Moreover, NFM can also be regarded as prevention measures (Layer 2) because they reduce flood consequences and damage by keeping water away from people in flood prone areas.
Natural flood management and FRAMES
Surface flooding had damaged houses and roads in the last years in several locations in the UK. Natural Flood Management measures have been already used locally as an FRM solution in the last 10 years. However, the NFM has not been implemented before as an FRM solution at catchment scale. Therefore, in FRAMES NFM measures such as leaky wooden barriers, and ponds, were implemented widely in the Medway, Lustrum Beck and Southwell catchments.
How is natural flood management linked to the layers of MLS?
The knowledge gained from the three pilot projects looking at critical infrastructure are linked as follows to the layers of the MLS approach:
- Layer 2, spatial adaptation: limits flood consequences by (a) increasing water storage capacity and enhanced biodiversity leading to more ecosystem services in the catchment; (b) improving the zoning of flood prone areas considering vulnerable areas and communities.
- Layer 3, emergency management: supports flood preparedness by (a) raising flood risk awareness among farmers/landowners and b) building social capital enhancing community resilience.
- Layer 4, resilient recovery: when flood preparedness actions are taken this leads to a better flood recovery for communities.