Approaches to limit disruption and damage from flooding have changed significantly in recent years. Worldwide, there has been a significant move from a strategy of flood defence to one of flood risk management.

Flood risk management includes the use of flood defences, where appropriate, but also recognises that more ‘managed flooding’ is essential to meeting goals for biodiversity and to sustain good ecological status in river and coastal systems.   In future, society will come to appreciate and value the positive benefits of the river and coastal ‘flood pulses’, while simultaneously developing improved coping strategies that will make communities resilient to the negative impacts of flooding. However, the success of this approach depends on integrating: enhanced defences and warning systems with improved understanding of the river system and better governance, emergency planning and disaster management actions.

Within the context of this vision of the future of flooding in the UK, the aim of the Flood Risk Management Research Consortium is to undertake an integrated programme of research to support effective flood risk management by:

This change in approach reflects the future uncertainties in flood prediction arising from climate change and recognition that continuing to rely on raising and strengthening defences against flooding is no longer tenable in an era of climate change and socio-economic development.

Acknowledgement
This research is performed as part of a multi-disciplinary programme undertaken by the Flood Risk Management Research Consortium.  The Consortium is funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant GR/S76304/01, jointly with NERC, the Joint Defra/EA Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management R&D programme, the Scottish Executive, the Rivers Agency (Northern Ireland) and UK Water Industry Research.