FAIR FLOOD INFRASTRUCTURE ASSET MANAGEMENT AND INVESTMENT IN RENOVATION, ADAPTATION AND MAINTENANCE

The overall objective of the FAIR project is to reduce flood risk across the North Sea Region by demonstrating climate change adaptation solutions to improve the performance of flood protection infrastructure.

FAIR demonstrates improved approaches for cost-effective upgrading and maintenance, optimising investments across national-system-asset levels, as well as applying adaptive, innovative technical designs. FAIR builds upon IVB results (ia MARE, SAWA) and state-of-the-art EU research from its partners (Deltares, TUHH, Sayers). FAIR guides the full-scale implementation of reinforcement, upgrade and maintenance programmes of dykes, sluices, dams, flood gates and pumping stations at target sites in UK, B, NL, D, DK, SE worth >1Bn/y until 2020. A transnational approach is vital to accelerate learning, as there is no budget or time for ‘trial and error’. FAIR gathers the major asset owners in the North Sea Region (eg RWS, LSBG, MOW), the first international collaboration of its kind.

Output summary

The project website is here and includes:

FAIR: Extended summary
FAIR: End Report 'Adaptive asset management for flood protection'
FAIR: a knowledge agenda for 2020 and beyond
FAIR: factsheet
Pilot Flood Protection Hollandse IJssel
Pilot Flood Protection gates Hamburg
Pilot Helsingborg
Pilot renewing sea dike Middelkerke
Pilot Ribe polder
Policy Brief English, German

Contact
The study is ongoing - for further information contact Paul Sayers (paul.sayers@sayersandpartners.co.uk).

Policy BRIEF

Collectively EU Member States invest an average of €3 billion per year on flood protection infrastructure. But a combination of climate and socio-economic change is increasing the annual average damage caused by flooding. Complex and difficult decisions will need to be taken in response to these threats, especially in coastal regions, as rising sea levels challenge the sustainability of existing policies and plans. An improved approach to the planning, design and management of new and existing flood protection assets will be central to addressing this challenge.
Significant new ideas and methods are being developed to ensure best value asset management options are identified for both existing and new infrastructure. However, their alignment with socioeconomic policies and supporting governance systems is often neglected.
The FAIR project brings together flood protection asset owners, operating authorities and researchers from across the North Sea Region (NSR) to share the policy, practice and emerging science of asset management and identifies four priority policy recommendations that respond to these challenges:

1. Break-free of the silo: Align multiple planning processes within, and beyond, flood management;
2. Mind the gap: Link strategic planning and operational processes through a tactical handshake;
3. Prepare for change: Develop flexible strategies and asset designs that can be adapted to meet changing requirements in future;
4. Make space for innovation: Embrace and manage risk to support the development of innovative solutions.

Outputs

The Policy Brief, including more discuss and examples, can be downloaded here

JOINT Workshop with the Environment agency UK

Adapting infrastructure assets in practice: Facing up to future challenges
A workshop jointly convened by the Interreg North Sea Region FAIR project and the Environment Agency

As we grapple with an uncertain future, Exeter College, Oxford provided an excellent venue for an enjoyable and informative exchange of ideas and experience on how to deliver adaptation in practice. Although we didn't identify a single sliver point, there was significant consensus on the urgency of the issues to be addressed and what is needed to make real progress. Building upon the four Policy Recommendations from the FAIR project (above) these included:

Common issues

Adaptation is more that simple modifying a flood defence asset – it a process that requires innovative, whole system, longer term thinking. Achieving this relies on recognising:

'Our world is changing faster than our thinking’ – we need to catch up
Adaptation is a 'people thing' – including individuals, communities, politicians, planners and engineers
Uncertainty is driven by more than climate change alone – development (local and remote), funding, societal preferences an all have implications for the choices we make.
Change starts with you! Flood management is in a pivotal position (although not always a leading) to influence change - we must 'break free of our silo – we all have to reach out

Prerequisites for progress

To make progress in flood and coastal management we must be better at:

Envisioning and visualising the future - Storylines are powerful agents in supporting buy-in to alternative courses of action
Addressing the hard choices - Adaptation ‘at the edges’ is easy but making hard choices (such as realignment, or investing significantly more today for future flexibility) is more difficult, but these must be addressed head on.
Recognising adaptation as a purposeful – adaptation is ‘not kicking the can down the road’ – we must take responsibility for the future today
Accepting adaptation is ‘not a free lunch’ – how much are we willing to pay for future flexibility/reduced lock-in?
Avoiding the bear trap of 'paralysis by analysis': We have many of the tools. We have much information – lets use it. New data is not always needed (sometimes it may be) – but we can make good decisions with the information we have
Delivering adaptation is a continuous process - you can’t get ‘adaptation done’ ; adaptation is an ongoing process.

A summary of the workshop, its agenda the presentations and findings can be found here.