Flood Mitigation

This approach aims to reduce the adverse consequences of flooding on communities, the environment, cultural heritage and damage to the economy. To better plan and co-ordinate actions, there are vast improvements in the understanding of the sources and impacts of flooding by introducing more collaborative way of managing flood risks; with the preparation of Flood Risk Management Strategies and Local Flood Risk Management Plans.

Conventional urban drainage systems are made up of a complex network of sewer pipes, overflows, gullies, burns and culverts (covered watercourses); ownership and duties are split between various agencies and landowners.

Each Local Authority under the new Flood Risk Management (FRM) Act is responsible to deal with flood appearing to be caused by inadequate road drainage and Scottish Water and SEPA are responsible to resolve different aspects of flooding.

Local Authorities are responsible for: the drainage of local roads and public highways, dealing with tidal and river flooding and flooding caused by extreme rainfall. They are also responsible for providing flood defenses and maintaining watercourses. The Scottish Government is responsible for making national policy on planning, flood prevention and flood warning. They have appointed Transport Scotland to carry out their duty to maintain the drainage systems of the motorways and major trunk roads.

Scottish Water has the public drainage duty and is responsible for the drainage of rainwater run-off (surface water) from roofs and any paved ground surface within the property boundary. Scottish Water helps to protect homes from flooding caused by sewers either overflowing or becoming blocked.

Under the Surface Water Management Act 2009, Scottish Water has to provide information to the Local Authorities information from their systems that will enable the creation of the Surface Water Management Plan of the Area. Scottish Water has the public drainage duty and is responsible for the drainage of rainwater run-off (surface water) from roofs and any paved ground surface within the property boundary. Scottish Water helps to protect homes from flooding caused by sewers either overflowing or becoming blocked; private home owners are responsible for the pipeline network within the property boundary.

The Environment Agency is an executive non-departmental public body, sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, has the responsibility across England & Wales for managing the risk of flooding and managing the risk of flooding from surface water, groundwater watercourses and taking the lead on community recovery.