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Flood risk assessment - Level 2

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.

View SFRA Level 2 report and appendices