Policy recommendations for an integrated approach to flood management

The impacts of climate change are being felt across the North Sea Region. The Interreg project FRAMES (Flood Resilience by Multi-LayerEd Safety) addressed the shared territorial challenge that on-going climate change will result in increasing sea levels and changes in rainfall patterns in the North Sea Region. Climate change is likely to mean warmer, wetter winters with more extreme rainfall events as well as sea level rise of up to 0.8m by 2080. The physical, economic and social effects of floods are likely to increase further. Focussing on only one type of measure, such as traditional flood protection (physical infrastructure), may not be sufficiently sustainable for the future. Facing uncertainties in future scenarios, it is important to be aware of and be prepared for diversification and integration of strategies: multi-layered safety approach.

In these policy recommendations authors use the Multi-LayerEd Safety (MLS) concept as a starting point. The MLS concept is a policy strategy that integrates measures for: protection, prevention, preparedness and recovery. These layers are traditionally managed by different authorities and sectors, but through MLS, the barriers can be lifted if the actors jointly apply the most effective combination of solutions across the layers. The FRAMES partners have been testing the application of MLS in 15 pilot projects across the NSR since 2017, and through this experience have learnt how best to apply each layer of MLS in order to achieve maximum benefits. In this document authors sum up the most important lessons learnt from the FRAMES pilot projects.