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Preference-satisfaction models of welfare dominate environmental policy but are problematic both in respect to the value placed on environmental goods and as a basis for environmental decision making. The Philosophy Department at the University of Manchester (UoM) has developed an alternative characterisation of well-being, along with tools for its measurement and employment in policy making. Impact is delivered via a UK-based project on climate justice, focused on a need to conceptualise, measure and map vulnerability to the impacts of climate change associated with flooding and heatwaves. The framework developed has had a major influence on adaptation planning at both local and national levels, allowing authorities to identify concentrations of climate disadvantage, and to formulate policies that address specific sources of disadvantage in different locations.
Over 5.5 million people in England and Wales live with flood risk. Research conducted at the University of Surrey illustrates for the first time how exposure to, and experience of, this risk is unequally distributed in the population, often varying along existing lines of social inequality and vulnerability.
The findings of this research have had significant impacts on national strategy and policy.
Surrey's research has been used to change the Environment Agency's flood warning codes and messages throughout the UK, as well as to inform the next Flood Incident Management Investment Strategy. Furthermore, the research has been drawn on by Collingwood Environmental Planning in developing an evidence base for the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment for Defra.
Throughout the REF period our research - driven by risk assessment theory - has provided a continuously updated set of unique models, data and techniques for assessing the benefits of UK flood alleviation investment. These have been used to justify all flood alleviation investment for the whole of the UK for the whole of the REF period (c. £3bn), as well as for the previous 30 years. Our work has been central to all assessments by Defra and the Environment Agency (EA) of national flood risk (Foresight; NaFRA (England, Wales, and Scotland); LTIS) and all the Catchment Flood Management Plans for England and Wales. The research is also used in Scotland (by the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, SEPA), by international and national insurers (e.g. through Risk Management Solutions Ltd), and in many other countries.
Thorne's research for the Flood Foresight project changed UK policy towards sustainable Integrated Flood Risk Management (IFRM), as implemented by the Floods and Water Management Act (2010). This legislation introduced new systems of governance to clarify responsibilities, support co-ordinated actions, strengthen the roles of local stakeholders, foster the co-production of knowledge, and work with natural processes. Flood Foresight has attracted international attention and stimulated projects and policy changes elsewhere, including in the Taihu Basin in China and around the city of Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia.
The UKCIP Adaptation Wizard is an accessible decision-support resource that enables adaptation planning in the context of climate change within the UK, Europe and internationally at national, sub-national and organisational levels. The Wizard stems directly from research carried out by UKCIP researchers in Oxford. The Wizard is being promoted by the UK Climate Ready programme, is the basis of the European Climate-ADAPT adaptation support tool, and has inspired the development of decision-support tools in Australia, Germany and Slovenia. The impact of, and desire for, the Wizard stems from its basis in credible science and practical experiences of a wide spectrum of policy and practice users, as well as the co-production of its delivery through the UKCIP website.