The Planning System and Flood Risk Management - Offaly County ...

• FRAs should be proportionate to the risk and appropriate to the scale,nature and location of the development.• FRAs should be undertaken by competent people, as early as possiblein the particular planning process. Use should be made of a suitablyqualified hydrologist, flood risk management professional or specialistwater engineer, with the appropriate skills and experience to undertakea flood risk assessment.• FRAs should be supported by appropriate data and information, includinghistorical information on previous events, but focusing more on predictiveassessment of less frequent or more extreme events. The FRA must takethe likely impacts of climate change into account.• FRAs must address the impact of a change in land use or developmenton flood risk elsewhere. Any such change or development must notadd to and should, where practicable, reduce flood risk.• FRAs must consider the vulnerability of those that could occupy thedevelopment, including arrangements for safe access and egress.• FRAs should consider the modification to flood risk that infrastructuresuch as raised defences, flow channels, flood-storage areas and otherartificial features provide, together with the consequences of their failure.1.3 Source-Pathway-Receptor ModelThe assessment of flood risk requires a thorough understanding of the sourcesof flood water (e.g. high sea levels, intense or prolonged rainfall leading torun-off and increased flow in rivers and sewers), the people and assets affectedby flooding (known as the receptors) and the pathways by which the floodwater reaches those receptors (e.g. river channels, river and coastal floodplains,drains, sewers and overland flow).The source-pathway-receptor (S-P-R) model has become widely used toassess and inform the management of environmental risks. This isillustrated in Figure A1. FRA thus requires identification and assessment ofall three components:• The probability and magnitude of the source(s) (e.g. high river levels,sea levels and wave heights).• The performance and response of pathways and barriers to pathwayssuch as floodplain areas and flood defence systems.• The consequences to receptors such as people, properties and theenvironment.55Planning Guidelines