This document summarizes a presentation on using natural flood management as a climate change adaptation option. It introduces ecosystem services and discusses how climate change is increasing flood risk in the UK. It then defines natural flood management as using land cover and channel features to store, infiltrate and slow water flow. The presentation describes a case study applying these techniques and hydrological modeling to the Tarland catchment in Scotland under different land use and climate change scenarios to explore natural flood management performance. It concludes that natural flood management has potential to help manage increased flood risk from climate change but time lags must be considered for vulnerable communities.

1. P H D C A N D I D A T E
OANA IACOB
Natural flood management as a
climate change adaptation option
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
Dundee

2. Outline
 Introduction to ecosystem services
 Climate change threat
 What is natural flood management?
 Tarland study catchment
 Hydrological modelling
 Land use scenarios
 Climate change scenarios
 Hydrological modelling tool
 Conclusions
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

3. Introduction to ecosystem services
 Humans have always depended on nature for
environmental assets like clean water, nutrient
cycling and soil formation.
 These have been called by different names through
human history, but are presently gaining global
attention as ‘ecosystem services’.
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

4. Ecosystem services
 Humans have changed ecosystems to meet rapidly
growing demands for food, fresh water, timber, fibre
and fuel.
 This has resulted in a substantial and largely
irreversible loss in the diversity of life on Earth.
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

5. UK NEA (2011): Relative
importance of, and
trends in the
impact of direct drivers
on UK ecosystem
services

6.  Sea levels are rising
 Glaciers are retreating
 Rainfall patterns are
changing
 Increased frequency of
extreme events
Climate change ~ 1 in 22 of all residential
properties & 1 in 13 of all
non-residential properties
at risk of flooding
The average annual damages ~
£720 million to £850 million

7. Engineered schemes or natural flood management?
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

8. What is Natural Flood Management?
 NFM involves the restoration or utilisation of ‘natural’ land cover and channel-floodplain
features within catchments through
storing water
increasing soil infiltration
slowing water
reducing water flow connectivity
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

9. Location within the
catchment for NFM
techniques
WWF Scotland, 2011
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
fisheries
carbon
sequestration
oxygen
production
biodiversity
recreation
water
quality
flood
protection
water
supply
climate
regulation

10. Representation of expected Engineered (Eng) and NFM strategies behaviour in
no climate change conditions and with climate change (Iacob et al., 2013)
c)
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

11. Dee catchment, Tarland subbasin
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
• Centrally situated tributary of the River Dee in north east of Scotland
• Approximately 77 km2
• The upper and lower Tarland includes the village of Tarland (600
people) and Aboyne ( 2200 people)

12. Tarland
subbasin
Issues identified:
1. Flooding
2. Low flows
3. Loss of habitats
4. Poor water quality
5. Loss of biodiversity
Soil map Tarland Land use map Tarland
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
DEM and river network Tarland

13. Modelling land use and climate scenarios
Land use
scenarios
Climate
change
scenarios
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
 Land use scenarios are
being developed to
explore spatial issues and
scale issues but also
assessing the impacts of
different policy driven
land use scenarios and
identify their impacts on
NFM options
performance
WaSiM-ETH
Hydrological
response

14. Land use scenarios
Brown et. all, 2012
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

15. Climate change scenarios
Climate Change Projections are available for Scotland at a 25 km
grid size and 12 km grid size
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

16. WaSiM-ETH
model
Fully distributed,
physically based model
for estimating climate
change impacts
The model has a good
flexibility in separating
surface runoff from
interflow allowing a
good reproduction of
flood events.
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013
Schulla , 2012

17. Conclusions
 Climate change poses new challenges that need new
approaches for flood risk management
 Natural flood management has the potential to
deliver ‘low regret’ solutions
 Time lags must be considered in
flood vulnerable communities
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013

18. QUESTIONS
Thank you!
11 April, Facing the Future Symposium 2013