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OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS
Before the Deluge
Tony Smyth, Director of Engineering Services and Chief Engineer in the Office of Public Works,
talks John Walshe through the OPW's efforts to revolutionise flood risk management in Ireland via
the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) programme.
The CFRAM programme is set EU FLOODS DIRECTIvE
that need to be addressed in a plan of this
risk There are three main reporting stages required nature. We want to keep communication
management in Ireland. The key under the EU Floods Directive: preliminary channels open between the OPW and local initiative to meet the requirements flood risk assessment, which was completed authorities right through the project."
of the 2007 EU Floods Directive, CFRAM is this year, flood hazard mapping, which is
When CFRAM is complete, there will
"very ambitious", according to Tony Smyth, currently underway and due for completion be benefits for local authorities, according Director of Engineering Services and Chief in 2013, and the establishment of catchment to Smyth: "They will have systematically Engineer with the Office of Public Works flood risk management plans, which are to be mapped the areas that are at risk from (OPW).
completed by 2015. The CFRAM programme flooding. This will then help to inform
"CFRAM is a new approach to identifying will deliver on these goals.
development plans and local area plans so
flood risk systematically and mapping it,"
The EU Water Framework Directive that we get better planning decisions and
Smyth explains. "One of the biggest benefits divides the country into six river basin we're not building projects in areas that are is that it should lead to better planning and districts, and the OPW has appointed at risk from flooding. CFRAM will effectively development decisions because we will engineering consultants to each district to help to contain the level of risk for future have better information on the areas at risk develop a flood plan for every river in the development plans.
from flooding.
country where there is a significant risk of
"From a local authority's perspective,
"There are also advantages for emergency flooding.
knowing what is at risk, how frequently
response planning. Local authorities and the "The programme is structured so that the and how intensely it is likely to flood will public will know what areas are liable to OPW, the consultants and Local Authority help them to develop emergency response flood, what areas will flood first and how the representatives are on the project steering plans," he continues. "Knowing what areas flood will progress. The information coming group for each of these projects," Smyth will flood first and what way a flood will from CFRAM will hopefully lead to a much explains. "We want the local authorities to propagate will be a big advantage, in terms enhanced awareness of flood risk for local be able to keep their elected members up to of dealing with people who will be affected authorities and individuals at risk."
date on progress and we want them to bring first. It will enable them to deliver a better to the steering group the various local issues flood response plan and then to improve the
Purposes of the CFRAM programme:
• To assess and map existing and
Aerial view of flooding in Carrick - on - Shannon, Co. Leitrim
potential future flood risk, through the identification of flood hazard areas and the associated impacts of flooding;
• To identify viable structural and non-
structural measures and options for managing the flood risks for localised high-risk areas and within the catchment as a whole;
• To prepare a strategic CFRAM
programme and associated Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) that set out the measures and policies that should be pursued by the OPW, local authorities and other stakeholders to achieve the most cost-effective and sustainable management of flood risk within the catchment area.
OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS
of towns and we will continue to move on
Claregalway, Co. Galway was severely flooded recently
those projects, subject to the availability of Exchequer funding."
ECONOMIC BENEFITSSmyth warns, however, that with most works of this nature, they are more costly if they're not done.
"We don't progress a project unless there
is an economic benefit in terms of balancing the total cost of the scheme against assessing the damage that is prevented from occurring with the scheme in place over a 50-year life cycle."
Full environmental impact assessments
are carried out on every project, with the engineering and environmental consultants working "hand-in-glove right from project inception".
Like with the CFRAM programme, each
project has a steering committee involving the OPW, the consultants and the local
operation of the emergency response when a flood actually happens."
CatChment Flood Risk assessment and management study
CAPITAL WORKS PROgRAMMEOf course, CFRAM is not the only strand
The pilot CFRAM Study on the River Lee included the following:
of the OPW's flood relief strategy, which
• The production of over 1,100 flood maps showing flood extents, flood depths
also includes extensive capital works, with
and velocities.
investments of €218 million in the last
• Some 250km of channel surveys and over 275 square km of detailed 3D
decade. While CFRAM deals with "the long
floodplain models.
term future for flood risk management in
• Development of nine detailed hydraulic computer models of the river and its
Ireland", the capital works programmes deal
with "the legacy issues".
• Production of an inception report, Strategic Environmental Assessment
According to Smyth, the ongoing major
(SEA) scoping and final reports, hydrology report and hydraulics report.
capital works throughout the country are vital because "mistakes were made in the past through not having sufficient information on areas at risk from flooding".
However, he also cites weather changes
as a fundamental factor: "There weren't very many flood events through the 1970s and ‘80s, particularly, but since the 1990s, we are getting weather as wet as it was back in the 1940s and ‘50s, and areas that we didn't realise were at risk of flooding have been built on in the meantime. So now we must go back and protect those areas by building flood schemes, which is very costly, but the works are progressing."
He cites a number of examples of
major flood management works, including Clonmel,
Waterford, Claregalway and Ennis: "There is good progress being made in a number
OFFICE OF PUBLIC WORKS
one of the 300 PFRA areas, they should
In general terms, however, Tony Smyth
One third of the OPW's strategy covers be advised that there may be a flood risk feels the co-operation between the OPW
minor mitigation works/coastal protection, and it needs further examination, instead of and local authorities is "hugely important whereby the OPW provides direct funding simply being refused planning permission for the continued improvement of flood to local authorities for smaller projects.
solely on the basis of the PFRA."
relief management in Ireland."
"If the local area
engineer can identify a project, such as small
works or embankment works, which can have a very real impact, such as protecting a group of houses, for a relatively small amount of money, we can fund it directly,"
explains Smyth, who reveals that some of these minor works
have budgets of up to €300,000.
heartburn."
LOCAL AUTHORITIESOne area where Smyth feels local authorities may need to be more careful is in terms of using the OPW's draft Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments (PFRAs) as the sole basis for refusing
that whilst this data is
at a strategic level to identify areas of potential flooding, it is not valid at individual site level.
"The information
is available to people and is useful in terms of giving them notice
For Effective, 24 Hour
of a potential flooding
problem, but we are anxious that it be
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used properly and not misused," Smyth warns.
looking for planning
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