Impact case study database

Note: Section 5 (below) provides detailed and specific citation and page and paragraph locations for the relevant content and context within the supporting evidence.

The route to impact:

Research [3b] and [3c] and the three insights (highlighted at the end of Section 2) directly informed the findings of:

• the House of Commons Select Committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the Summer 2007 floods (published 7 May 2008) [5a];

• the highly influential 2008 Pitt Review (a Government Independent Review into the 2007 floods led by Sir Michael Pitt) and its Final Report [5b].

These reviews, and their recommendations, provided the route to impact from our 2007 research into the Hull floods. The policy impact was realised when our research findings were implemented in the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 and this policy impact underpinned our REF2014 case study. However, impact is only realised when policy shapes legislation and is implemented and the REF2021 period has seen this legislation embedded into the national approaches to flood management, in turn guiding ~£2.6bn in UK flood management funding between 2015 and 2020 [5c]. The REF2021 period has additionally seen impact delivered through new policy frameworks and the shaping of new national legislation including the Water Act 2014, the related Surface Water Management Action Plan 2018 [5d], and the 25-year Environment Plan 2018 [5c]. These documents contain significant policy drivers founded on our underpinning research and they have significantly improved flood prevention and mitigation measures across the country (~300,000 homes better protected **[5c]**). Further, beyond their impact on legislation, these documents also highlight the importance of physical and social resilience. The underpinning research changed the tone of UK debates about flood planning: it embedded cooperation and communication between communities, industry, civic agencies and government throughout the legislation cited. It helped flood planning to progress beyond technical analysis to also encompass wider aspects of the societies at risk [5c, 5d, 5e].

Impact in the REF2021 period:

During the REF2021 period, the research impact has enjoyed increasing reach and significance both nationally and internationally. The underpinning research has shaped policies and strategies for flood prevention and response, evidencing the full impact translation pathway of research into policy and subsequent implementation.

At the national scale, the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 gave the Environment Agency (EA) overall responsibility for all flooding, including surface water flooding. Part of this core recommendation from the underpinning research went into policy in the REF2014 period, but has been implemented fully in the REF2021 period. Local authorities now retain responsibility for the control of regional surface water drainage, but do so under the auspices of the EA [5c, 5d, 5f]. This change responded to the third recommendation of the underpinning research: that one lead agency should oversee flood events with multi-agency partnerships working together and collaborating on broader flood governance.

Second, the regional Surface Water Management Plans (SWMPs), which are now fully codified in the REF2021 period through the Water Act 2014, the related Surface Water Management Action Plan (2018) [5d], along with the 25-year Environment Plan (2018) [5c], have also been shaped by the call for connected governance and planning advocated by the University’s 2007 research and the subsequent Pitt Review. Hull was one of five areas to trial SWMPs, and Coulthard sat on the Steering Committee from 2014 to 2017. The SWMPs mandate planners, investors and developers to incorporate flood risk into their planning. This tranche of legislation prepares society for future flood events to a degree that was never required previously. The University’s research also recommended creating ‘Aqua Green’ sites in open public spaces, that would retain surplus surface water temporarily during flood events. Hull City Council has adopted these recommendations within the work of the Living with Water Partnership (see below). The use of natural flood management strategies like these are now also firmly embedded in the new EA National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy (2020) [5f, 5g] and the 25-year Environment Plan (2018) [5c] :

“…Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) are now required to maintain a register of flood defence structures, including details of ownership and condition. The 2018 Surface Water Management Action Plan, which also has foundation in the University’s research, requires the Environment Agency to work with LLFAs and other expert bodies to develop best practice for local flood defence management.” Director of Flood and Coastal Risk Management (FCRM), EA [5g].

The University’s research recommendations have additionally shaped new UK flood policies and strategies in the REF2021 period through their incorporation into the development of the Environment Agency’s new National Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management Strategy for England (2020) [5f, 5g]. The EA Director of FCRM further states:

“…the University of Hull research has significantly impacted governance and inter-agency partnership working, as well leading to the adoption of a more integrated approach to flood risk management.” [5g].

In this review period, the research has also impacted international flood and resilience strategies through the development, and subsequent global deployment, of the City Water Resilience Approach (CWRA). This is part of the Resilient Cities Programme pioneered by the Rockefeller Foundation, with support from Arup, Resilience Shift, and the OECD [5e]. Launched in 2018, the CWRA [5e, 5h] is now the global standard for city-level water resilience. It promotes a methodology and framework that enables cities to diagnose their challenges related to water and deploy that knowledge to inform planning and investment decisions to better-prepare for, and respond to, shocks and stresses to their water systems. The University’s underpinning research was vital to Hull being chosen as one of only five founding cities for the programme (along with Amman, Cape Town, Mexico City and Greater Miami) [5h]:

“The University of Hull’s research into the 2007 Hull floods and the partnership working enabled by the research, created the governance and inter-agency working that lay the foundations that helped to support the case for why the city was selected as one of the Wave 1 cities for the development of the CWRA in 2015.”…

“Kingston-Upon-Hull’s specific water challenges… have been adopted into the establishment of qualitative and quantitative indicators to measure city water resilience embedded within the CWRA, for use in any city, anywhere.” Global Water Director, Arup [5h].

Hull’s participation in the CWRA project was facilitated by the creation of the Living with Water Partnership (LWW) [5i] between the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water, Hull City Council and the East Riding of Yorkshire Council, with Professor Dan Parsons (Director of the Energy and Environment Institute) representing Hull University on the Partnership’s Executive Board. As part of this partnership, the University’s Energy and Environment Institute undertook a baseline city-wide investigation of flood risk, surveying >450 households to understand the impacts –physical, economic, or linked to health and wellbeing– of Hull’s 2007 and 2013 floods. It also explored concerns about future flood risk and how people hoped to protect themselves and their homes [5j]. This survey contributed to the development of the CWRA approach and has informed its global adoption [5i]. Without the multi-agency approach advocated by the University’s underpinning research, the CWRA would lack a robust, evidence-based framework for approaching water resilience on a multi-factorial, catchment-focussed basis:

“Hull was specifically selected as a Wave 1 City for the CWRA due the way in which research undertaken by the University into the 2007 floods had resulted in strong partnership working across the city.”

“The global rollout of the CWRA now underway through the Rockefeller Foundation, Arup and the OECD, and is seeing the learning from Hull’s experience of flooding, the implementation of aspects of Living with Water concerning flood resiliency now being adopted around the world.” Head of Resilience, Yorkshire Water, and Living with Water Programme Director [5i].*

The impact generated by the University’s flood research is considerable. Policy influence in REF2014 has translated into full implementation in the REF2021 period. New UK policy impacts have also resulted from the research and they have been adopted into legislation and have been implemented on the ground. The reach and significance of the impact has expanded and is now world-wide through its influence on the development of the Rockefeller CWRA and its ongoing deployment in cities across the globe such as Thessaloniki (Greece), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), and Kigali (Rwanda).