Natural Resources Wales: Keeping pace with climate change

Keeping pace with climate change and reducing future flood risk to communities across Wales will require increased and sustained investment in flood defences – yet not all locations at risk will be economical to defend.

This is the finding of a new report published by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) on January 11, looking at the level of investment required in flood defences to manage Wales’ future flood risk from rivers and the sea against the backdrop of a changing climate. 

NRW’s Long Term Investment Requirements for Flood Defences in Wales report is published in response to an action in the Welsh Government’s National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy.

It considers four different investment scenarios for flood defences on a national (Wales) scale, factoring in climate change impacts over a 100-year period.

The scenarios include keeping pace with climate change for all existing defences, investing only in defences that are cost-beneficial, investing only in locations at the highest risk, and the impacts of investing at current funding levels. 

The report highlights that, over the next 100 years, and considering the projected impacts of climate change, 24% more properties will be at risk from river flooding and 47% more from tidal flooding. 

According to NRW, 34% more properties will also be at risk of surface water flooding.