The level 2 Strategic Flood Risk Assessment (SFRA) looks at flood risk across identified communities in the borough
About the SFRA - Level 2
A Level 2 SFRA is undertaken where a local authority identifies areas of new development in locations at risk of flooding. We've commissioned a Level 2 assessment because our Level 1 assessment showed that land outside of flood risk areas can’t accommodate all the necessary development.
The Level 2 SFRA will consider the detailed nature of the flood risk within a flood zone, and assess other sources of flooding.
SFRA objectives
The objectives of the Level 2 SFRA are to:
- provide a community-based assessment of flood risk across identified communities in the borough
- inform the Sequential Test
- provide guidance for developers to complete the Exception Test
- assess residual risk and climate change
- conduct appropriate hydraulic modelling to determine flood risk where flood risk information is unavailable or limited
- use available data to provide information and maps presenting flood risk from all sources for each proposed site
- take into account the most recent national and local policy and guidance documents
It also aims to update information on the requirements for:
- site-specific Flood Risk Assessments
- considerations for suitable surface water management methods
- opportunities to reduce flood risk to existing communities through new development
Level 2 SFRA outputs
The Level 2 SFRA includes detailed assessments as follows:
- an assessment of the highest risk flooding mechanism and most likely flooding type for each community
- an assessment of existing flood warning, including whether there is safe access and egress during an extreme event
- advice and recommendations on the likely suitability of sustainable drainage systems (SUDS) for managing surface water runoff
- advice on appropriate policies for communities which could satisfy the Exception Test
And also an assessment of all sources of flooding including:
- fluvial flooding
- tidal flooding
- surface water flooding
- mapping of the functional floodplain and the potential increase in fluvial, tidal and surface water flood risk due to climate change
View SFRA Level 2
We've produced detailed community summary tables covering the above (Appendices B2).
To accompany each community summary table, there is an interactive Geo-PDF map, with all the mapped flood risk outputs.
These have easy to use ‘tick box’ layers down the right-hand side and bottom of the mapping. These allow you to view different combinations of data (Appendices B3).
Please note - we recommend you open the maps using Internet Explorer, or download the maps and view them using Adobe Reader.
More detailed guidance is also given (Appendices C) for:
- planners and developers on how to use the Level 2 SFRA to inform the Sequential and Exception Test
- developers on how to use the information in both the Level 1 and Level 2 SFRAs to apply the Sequential and Exception Tests at the planning application stage*
*This will be particularly useful for windfall sites, where the Sequential Test has not been applied at the allocation stage.