National Flood Resilience Strategy: island communities impact assessment

National Flood Resilience Strategy: Island Communities Impact Assessment

Please ensure this template is completed in conjunction with the Island Communities Impact Assessment (ICIA) Guidance on the Scot Gov Website.

Name of Policy, Strategy or Service - National Flood Resilience Strategy

Step one – Develop a clear understanding of your objectives

• What are the objectives of the policy, strategy or service?
• What are the intended impacts/ outcomes and how do these potentially differ across the islands?

Ministers committed to the Flood Resilience Strategy in the 2022 Programme for Government, stating that the Scottish Government would consult on a flooding strategy for Scotland, including how we can build community flood resilience and engage a broader range of delivery partners to deliver more diverse flood management actions faster.

The Flood Resilience Strategy is intended to set a direction for building long-term flood resilience in Scotland. It sets out the changes we need to make now in how we deal with flooding, shifting from ‘fixing flooding problems’ to creating flood resilient places. It lays out the principles that we need to follow to improve flood resilience for the long term.

The Strategy will be followed by delivery plans that will set out concrete actions that delivery partners and communities will take to build flood resilience. It will not in itself set out specific actions but will provide the guiding principles that inform what actions are taken/avoided in the future.

The Strategy is based around three key themes: people, places, and processes. The people section focuses on taking an inclusive approach to involving communities; the places element focuses on placemaking and how flood resilience can be integrated into the way we design and manage our places; and the processes section focuses on how available resources can be deployed to support the change.

The Strategy should not have differential implications for island communities. The themes of people, places and processes are high-level enough that they can be applied in a range of contexts and according to the needs of different communities.

Step two – gather your data and identify your stakeholders

• What data is available about the current situation in the islands?
• Who are your key Stakeholders?
• How does any existing data differ between islands?
• Are there any existing design features or mitigations in place?

SEPA leads on flood mapping, the national flood risk assessment and the flood risk management planning process.

Flood maps – all Scotland is mapped to show current and future flood risks from rivers, surface water and the sea.

Flood Risk Management Maps (sepa.org.uk)

The National Flood Risk Assessment (NFRA) – provides all Scotland with the knowledge and tools to assess the causes and consequences of flooding. SEPA works with key stakeholders to periodically review and update the NFRA every six years, ensuring that we can effectively support sustainable flood risk management across Scotland.

sepa.org.uk/data-visualisation/nfra2018/

Flood Risk Management Plans –Are Scotland’s route map for reducing the effects of flooding on our communities. They cover all of Scotland and outline the actions required to reduce the impacts of flooding in the 14 identified local plan districts.

Flood Risk Management Plans | SEPA

Data availability and quality varies across Scotland. SEPA takes this into account and uses the best quality data available in collaboration with local authorities to inform all of its products. For example, Shetland is at the northern extreme of the Coastal Flood Boundary Dataset, so sea level estimates for coastal flood maps are improved by combining available data with modelling techniques and outputs from local studies in collaboration with Shetland Islands Council.

Our key stakeholders are those exposed to flooding and those involved in taking action to increase flood resilience. This includes community groups, Flood Risk Management (FRM) practitioners and policymakers across the public sector. Across Scotland there are varying levels of engagement, and varying levels of opportunity for engagement.

Island communities given their size and cohesion are well placed to take a more holistic and place-based approach to improving their flood resilience when compared to larger urban communities.

This could be an advantage for island communities as they are more likely to consider how they can improve their flood resilience in the context of all the other challenges and choices they face.

We held in-person workshops across Scotland with practitioners and communities during the summer and autumn of 2023. One was held in Inverness to allow for ease of travel for those attending from Island communities, attended by representatives from community groups, Island councils, and relevant public bodies. In addition to three in-person events we held two workshops online, which were attended by several island representatives and practitioners.

Step three - consultation

• Is there are information already gathered through previous engagements?
• How will you carry out your consultation and in what timescales? Public meetings/Local Authorities/key Stakeholders
• What questions will you ask when considering how to address island realities?
• Separate consultation events for Island communities/Local Authorities?

The Scottish Government flooding team, in collaboration with Sniffer, gathered a substantial amount of information about flooding issues facing island communities and how they envisage building flood resilience in their places through two rounds of workshops on the Strategy and an online survey that ran for two months in late 2023.

The first round of workshops, taking place in July and August 2023, were intended to provide a ‘big picture’ view of flood resilience in Scotland and what needed to change. Themes that emerged from these sessions informed the second stage of workshops that took place in September and October 2023, asking attendees to consider what a flood resilient Scotland might look like in 2045 and beyond, what the roles and responsibilities of different groups might be, and how we can measure flood resilience.

As noted above, island community representatives and FRM practitioners from the islands were present at a number of workshops and their views were fed into the development of the public consultation document.

The Flood Resilience Strategy public consultation ran in summer 2024, where we asked questions about our approach and gave space for suggestions about how it might be improved. Islands-specific questions were not asked, because we believe that our themes of people, place and process are pitched at a sufficiently high level that will enable communities to make islands-specific decisions about building their flood resilience.

Step four – assessment

• Does your assessment identify any unique impacts on island communities? (Further detail in the Guidance):
  • Demographic
  • Economic
  • Gaelic
  • Social
• Does your assessment identify any potential barriers or wider impacts?
• Are there mitigations already in place for these impacts raised?

Our assessment of the Flood Resilience Strategy does not identify any unique impacts on island communities because it is pitched at a high level that is aimed at providing communities and delivery partners with principles that they can follow to identify and take specific actions to build flood resilience in their places. Delivery plans will follow the Strategy, setting out concrete actions that delivery partners need to take to build flood resilience across Scotland, and these are much more likely to have unique impacts on island communities, so they will need an ICIA.

The three themes of the Strategy, People, Places, and Processes, are intended to provide direction for people involved in building flood resilience rather than prescribing actions to be taken. For example, the People theme is about inclusive community engagement and giving people the tools and information that they require to make informed decisions about actions to build flood resilience in their communities. What this looks like will be different in different parts of Scotland, but the principle of empowering communities by making data and information accessible remains constant.

Demographic, economic, and social issues facing islands should be taken into account by delivery partners working with island communities when planning and making decisions about how to build flood resilience and climate adapted places. The principles articulated in the People and Places sections of the Strategy should be used to develop meaningful engagement with affected communities and to consider how climate adaptation and flood resilience can be integrated into wider decisions about a place.

The Flood Resilience Strategy public consultation ran in summer 2024 and the questions were designed to be open and applicable to communities across Scotland. The consultation document was also published in Gaelic, large font and easy read versions and we received responses from island representatives including Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands and Argyll and Bute Councils. We shared the consultation with stakeholders who participated in our programme of engagement in 2023, and encouraged them to cascade it through their networks. We will do the same for the Strategy once we progress to publication.

Is a full Island Communities Impact Assessment required?

You should now determine whether, in your opinion, your policy, strategy or service is likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities (including other island communities). To form your opinion, the following questions should be considered:

• Are there mitigations in place for the impacts identified and noted above from stakeholders and community consultations? (If further ICIA action is not required, complete the section below and publish).
• Does the evidence show different circumstances or different expectations or needs, or different experiences or outcomes (such as levels of satisfaction, or different rates of participation)?
• Are these different effects likely?
• Are these effects significantly different?
• Could the effect amount to a disadvantage for an island community compared to the mainland or between island groups?
• If your answer is ‘no’ to the above questions, please complete the box below.

If the answer is ‘yes’, an ICIA must be prepared and you should proceed to Step 5.

In our opinion, the contents of the Flood Resilience Strategy will not result in effects for island communities that are significantly different from its effects on other communities because the likely themes and principles that form the Strategy will be of a sufficiently high level and apply equally across all communities.

The Strategy will set direction for communities and practitioners across Scotland to improve their flood resilience and develop climate adapted places, written in a way that allows island communities to make island-specific decisions about their flood resilience.

However, island communities may be less able to participate in the public consultation due to demographic, social and economic challenges, so we took steps to ensure that the consultation was accessible to people who live on islands by publishing it in Gaelic, large font and easy read versions, and by cascading the consultation through networks of community representatives and practitioners.

We worked with relevant colleagues to ensure that the consultation questions were appropriate for the circumstances of island communities, and took their input into account when drafting the Strategy, we received responses from island representatives including Shetland Islands, Orkney Islands and Argyll and Bute Councils. We believe that, due to high level of the Strategy and the previous engagement that took into account the views of island representatives, a separate consultation was not required. We instead developed proactive comms that sought views from island communities to offset inequalities of access that they might experience.

With these mitigations in place, we believe that the flood resilience Strategy will not result in an effect that disadvantages an island community group compared to the mainland or between island groups.

A full Islands Community Impact Assessment is not required

In preparing the ICIA, I have formed an opinion that our policy, Strategy or service is not likely to have an effect on an island community which is significantly different from its effect on other communities (including other island communities). The reason for this is detailed below.

Reason for not completing a full Islands Communities Impact Assessment:

The Flood Resilience Strategy will be pitched at a strategic level that will not result in an effect on an island community that is significantly different from its effects on other communities. It will begin the shift from ‘fixing flooding problems’ to creating flood resilient places, and lay out the actions that we need to take to build long term flood resilience. However, this will not be explored in such granular detail that it will have significantly different effects on island communities.

We took steps to ensure that the Flood Resilience Strategy public consultation was accessible to island communities, and published it in Gaelic, easy read and large font versions. We have done the same in publishing the Strategy.