BS 85600:2017 pdf download – Post-event flood assessments — Guidance on investigating flooding incidents
8.3 Effectiveness of response to flooding
Once the site survey is completed the responses of the organizations listed in Annex A before, duringand after the flood should be established, to assess whether these were effective, and recorded.
9Learning from the flood event
ldentifying learning points from flood events is a key step to understanding and improving flood riskmanagement. Learning points might be relevant to individuals, groups, organizations or across theflood risk management sector, to establish what went well and could be seen as good practice andwhat did not go well and needs to be improved.
Learning points should be related to the main areas covered in the report (see Annex C) and shouldbe proportionate to the scale of the flooding e.g.incidents.Efforts should be made to record whatwent well (positives) and areas for improvement(negatives) to demonstrate balance.For example:.Did the flood occur as expected?
. Were local arrangements in place,e.g.emergency plans, community flood plans, and, if so, did
they work as planned?
Was there engagement and data/resource sharing between RMAs?
Did the flood asset infrastructure work? lf it failed, could the cause be established?
Was any warning sufficient: timely, understandable and of the appropriate level? (See Annex Bwhich describes the aspirations of the Environment Agency to provide a flood warning service.)Did the dissemination of the warning to the public work?
Did stakeholders heed any warning and take appropriate mitigation action? Were there adequateresources to deal with the flooding?
Learning points should be as specific and clear as possible, and should cover each issue andwhat happened.
lt is not necessary to identify how something can be improved or make a commitment to addressingan issue that has arisen, but if there is an obvious solution this should be reported.Any commitmentto act should be reviewed more widely than is possible during the flood reporting stage.However,learning points should stand alone so they can feed swiftly into improvement plans.
lf any learning points are identified for other organizations, i.e.not those drafting the report, theseshould be discussed with the other party before finalizing any recommendation.
10Compilation and publication of the report
10.1 Initial draft and consultation with RMAs
The outcomes of the data collection (Clause 5 and Clause 7), including photographs, maps, eyewitnessreports, etc., should be fed into an initial draft report. The report should also include any identified issues (see Clause 8 and Clause 9) for the risk management authorities, bodies, individuals andcommunities identified as having responsibilities and observations made during the investigation.NOTE A report by Defra [5] suggests that the most effective reports are concise and focus on reporting thespecific event, the hydrological aspects, the drainage systems behaviour and the causes of flooding.A template for areport is given in Annex C, while a number of example actions are listed in Annex D.
The report should contain recommendations for addressing the issues identified, which take accountof the whole catchment area,rather than only the flooded area, so that any measures recommendeddo not adversely affect current assets or arrangements or increase flood risk elsewhere.
This initial draft should be shared with relevant RMAs for a predetermined period of time to obtaintheir comments and views, particularly on the recommendations.
10.2Publication of final report
Once the views of the RMAs have been obtained and any changes made to the report in responseto these, the “non-public” watermark should be removed and any personal/property-specific
information redacted in line with data protection requirements. If any information is to be mappedand published, this should be presented at such a level to ensure that individual properties that havebeen flooded are not identifiable.
NOTE1 Attention is drawn to the Data Protection Act 1998[6] and the need to maintain a sound system ofversion control.
The final report should be published, e.g. posted on the relevant website, and all RMAs, parish/towncouncil, and affected residents/homeowners/landowners should be notified of this.
NOTE2 On occasion key stakeholders might not be fully engaged during the site investigation or key informationnot obtained, in which case it might be necessary to add an appendix to the published report.