Hampshire: water, water everywhere

Hampshire County Council’s holistic approach to climate change, and the benefits of international good practice.

Stuart Jarvis was deputy director of environment at Hampshire County Council when the summer floods hit in 2007. “They came at a time when we not only had experienced our highest rainfall in 200 years, but also suffered from severe drought.” Stuart and his team led the council’s response to climate change, working with local authorities, central government and European partners to protect people living and working in Hampshire.

Clear direction

“We put climate change at the heart of all council policies”, Stuart explains. “Our role is to make communities less vulnerable to extreme weather events through good planning of the infrastructure and maintenance services we provide.”

The rivers and streams of the New Forest are already prone to flash flooding and the long coastline is at risk from flooding and erosion. The forecast rise in sea levels, more intense downpours and storms bring increased threat to Hampshire.

The council is one of the new growth point areas with 80,000 new homes projected to be built in the next 20 years. The risks need to be properly understood in order to make informed decisions about how and where new development will go. Hampshire joined with the local authorities in the Partnership for Urban South Hampshire (PUSH) to conduct a strategic flood risk assessment.

“Officers and members believe that reducing climatic sensitivity to flooding can be achieved through flood defences, by not building on flood plains and by using good design and contingency planning.”

“The challenge for the county, and planners in particular”, says Stuart, “is to create communities which are resilient to climate change over the next 50-100 years. The solutions may seem counter-intuitive - building on brownfield rather than greenfield sites, for instance, may not always be the best environmental option. Our green spaces like urban heaths have a crucial role in combating climate change.”

Hampshire is part of a sub regional green infrastructure strategy, another product of PUSH. The strategy will ensure that pressures on green space from growth are minimised and the potential to enhance green spaces are maximised.

Working local to global

Many of the approaches necessary to reducing climatic sensitivity involve expensive infrastructure, like coastal flood defence, which may be outside the county council’s remit. Stuart led a partnership with parishes, district and unitary authorities, the South East England Regional Assembly, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Environment Agency and others. At the height of the floods, in the winters of 2000 and 2001, this work resulted in a joint guide: Managing flood risks in parishes.

European good practice

Stuart believes that councils have much to gain from participation in European projects on climate change issues. Hampshire led the ESPACE project, which meant the team learnt from good practice from Holland and Belgium. The project focused on climate change and spatial planning for water management.

Stuart points out that areas largely dependent on aquifers for their water supply are vulnerable: they are likely to become much less efficient at recharging as climate change accelerates. So alternative rainwater collection systems need to be developed, such as making space for water in urban areas.

This kind of change to the urban fabric, which could make streets more beautiful and even bring the sound of water to them, is a good ‘keying edge’ to engage the public with the issues and the solutions in a positive way. “Many local authorities under-estimate how much people know about climate change and so their messages are often too simplistic”, he said.

Aalborg commitments

Hampshire is also using the Aalborg commitments to self-assess its performance on issues of climate change. The commitments are embedded in the council’s corporate business plan and support the members’ vision that “Within a decade Hampshire will prosper without risking our environment”. Stuart believes this level of ambition can only be met by working together with local, regional and central government, government agencies and NGOs, partnerships, academia and European partners.

Biodiversity

In determining how to take action for biodiversity, Stuart recommends looking at guidance from the BRANCH project (Biodiversity Requires Adaptation in Northwest Europe under a Changing climate). The study revealed that the lowland heath and chalk grassland of Hampshire could change significantly or even disappear in composition because of climate change. The best long-term solution may be to use a range of management techniques to create new variety within designated sites, so facilitating species movement.

Stuart Jarvis is currently on secondment from Hampshire County Council as Managing Director of PUSH