Climate Change, Flooding and Environmental Resilience

One of the most serious and complex challenges facing society today is climate change. A rise in greenhouse gas emissions, and the resultant long-term changes in global weather patterns, has increased the frequency of severe weather in recent years, resulting in flooding events originating both from rivers and from accumulations of surface water. When combined with rising sea-levels and the risk of seawater inundation, the impacts of global warming have the potential to harm people, property, infrastructure and the environment. Dealing with these impacts and undertaking associated remedial works is also extremely costly for the public and private sectors and this will only increase in the future if no action is taken. The Local Development Plan (LDP) has an important role to play in helping to address the challenges we now face, by bringing forward measures that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and build environmental resilience.