London scoping - ukcip

Final Report
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• A project with partners in the South East and Europe called European Spatial
Planning Adapting to Climate Events (ESPACE). Part of this will be the
development of a Decision Testing Tool to see how decision making will stand up
to the impacts of climate change.
• The Thames Regional Climate Change Impacts study (WS Atkins, July 2001) that
identified a number of priority actions for the EA:
• Thames Estuary – develop baseline scenario and understand impacts of climate and
social and economic change on the estuary including impacts of combined sewer
overflows (CSOs) on the estuary under climate change;
• Review effect of climate change on current level of flood defence;
• Assess costs and benefits of maintaining target standards in the face of climate
change;
• Develop appropriate wildlife corridors;
• Manage habitat change rather than preserve designations; and
• Further development of regional water resources modelling.
As can be seen from the above many of these actions are being taken forward or have strategic
processes associated with them that have the ability to integrate climate change into policy
development. However, the approach is not yet comprehensive and all these initiatives need to
feed into strategies and plans in order to identify and secure the necessary actions and resources.
There is also a need for maintenance of high quality monitoring systems and long term,
homogenous observational records to measure and help in the assessment of climate change.
The EA is identifying climate change R&D needs to support its strategic and planning processes
including:
• The likely impact of either low flows during drought periods or violent storms on
the geomorphology and hydrology of London’s rivers. The sedimentation patterns
of rivers are dependent upon flow, deposition will occur in slow moving water and
high flows are likely to deepen the channel. It would be useful to add investigation
of erosion and accretion in the estuary to these studies; and
• The impact of climate change on water quality due to changes in dilution, dispersal
and degradation of chemicals and pollutants in the water. This could in turn affect
discharge consents to the water environment.
Both the above have significant implications on the ecology of the river, smothering plants and
animals or preventing colonisation by plants and recruitment of invertebrates and fish and
preventing the ability of the rivers to sustain life.
This R&D will support the EA’s strategy and policy development.
8.4.3 Water Companies
Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a safe and reliable supply of potable water
and to maintain the water mains system and to reduce leakage. They also have a duty to