Simon J. Dadson et al

Dadson SJ et al. 2017 A restatement of the natural science evidence concerning catchment-based ‘natural’ flood management in the UK.Proc. R. Soc. A 473: 20160706. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2016.0706

Oxford Martin Restatements review the natural science evidence base underlying areas of current policy concern and controversy. Written in policy neutral terms and designed to be read by an informed but not technically specialist audience, restatements are produced by a writing team reflecting the breadth of opinion on the topic in the science community and involve wide consultation with interested stakeholders. The final version of the restatement is peer-reviewed prior to publication.

This paper was published in March 2017 in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A. It deals with catchment-based ‘natural’ flood management in the United Kingdom.

Flooding is a very costly natural hazard in the UK and is expected to increase further under future climate change scenarios. Flood defences are commonly deployed to protect communities and property from flooding, but in recent years flood management policy has looked towards solutions that seek to mitigate flood risk at flood-prone sites through targeted interventions throughout the catchment, sometimes using techniques which involve working with natural processes. This Restatement provides a succinct summary of the natural science evidence base concerning the effectiveness of catchment-based ‘natural’ flood management in the UK. The evidence summary is designed to be read by an informed but not technically specialist audience. Each evidence statement is placed into one of the four categories describing the nature of the underlying information.