£200 million flood and coastal innovation programmes: mid-programme report

This report provides an update on the £200 million flood and coastal innovation programmes that are led and managed by the Environment Agency.In the 2020 Budget the government announced a £200 million innovation fund. The fund helps meet the aims of the statutory national Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management strategy for England.

The programmes have already achieved many successes including:

• creating 97 natural flood management interventions - these use natural processes to help slow the flow and store floodwaters
• installing 572 river flow, rainfall and surface water monitoring sensors - these measure and monitor flood risk in real-time
• developing 3 artificial intelligence and machine learning projects using CCTV footage - these identify blockages on flood control structures
• creating 211 sustainable drainage system (SuDS) interventions - these help to control surface water runoff in urban areas reducing localised surface water flood risk
• securing about £21 million of partner funding contributions from water and sewerage companies, national public organisations, local authorities and the third sector
• enabling more than 20 local flood community groups - these help communities develop flood response plans so they can respond to and recover quickly from flooding
• supporting 25 PhD positions - these are investigating challenging areas of flood resilience and coastal transition