How is the Role of Ecosystem Services Considered in Local Level Flood Management Policies: Case Study in Cumbria, England

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to investigate how local level flood policies consider Natural Flood Management (NFM) as a risk reduction mechanism in England. Methods used include a review of European and English national legislative and other flood management policy instruments as well as a case study of Cumbria County’s local flood management policies. The legislative and other policy instruments at both European and English national level demonstrated increasing level of NFM consideration for local flood risk management. In Cumbrian context, flood management policies are mostly aligned to the traditional structural defence-based approach; however, emergence and importance of non-structural measures including NFM are clearly evident, are visibly influenced by the European and national policies. The numbers of potential NFM actions in local flood policies are nonetheless insignificant compared to the NFM potentials, but these can be worked in as a starting point for wider scale consideration and implementation.