In response to the need to improve how we manage surface water in Scotland and increase our use of blue-green infrastructure for drainage and flood management, in the face of the climate emergency, the Scottish Government published Water-resilient places - a policy framework for surface water management and blue-green infrastructure, in February this year.
The paper outlines how surface water is currently managed in Scotland, sets out a vision for the future and describes the components that should be brought together to form a coherent framework that will support delivery of water resilient places.
It considers what improvements we can make to surface water management in communities across Scotland by building on existing policy and by improving how we work together. The framework focusses on placemaking and climate resilience to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of funding and widen support for the statutory stakeholders. It is constructed around the premise that water resilient places benefit us all, so we all have a role to play in delivering them.
Recommendations are provided for action to improve the delivery of surface water management and flood resilience in Scotland, to support the commitments in the Programme for Government and to help address the relevant recommendations in the Infrastructure Commission for Scotland's Key Findings Report - specifically those focused on climate adaptation, "infrastructure first" and improving regulatory coherence across water provision, flood management and resilience.
Taken together the recommendations aim to support the transition to water resilient places where communities can continue to thrive as climate change impacts play-out over the coming decades.
For further details, visit the Scottish Government website here - https://www.gov.scot/publications/water-resilient-places-policy-framework-surface-water-management-blue-green-infrastructure/
(February 2021)