Thames Valley Flood Scheme - Strategic Environmental Assessment

Overview

1. Welcome
2. Why do we need the Thames Valley Flood Scheme?
3. What is the Thames Valley Flood Scheme?
4. Project ambitions and working together
5. Strategic Environmental Assessment
6. Timeline
7. Frequently asked questions
8. Other consultations and engagement

This section is about how the project interacts with people, places and the environment.

We are carrying out Sustainability Appraisal of the project which will tell the story of how social, economic and environmental factors have guided the decisions we have made so far. It will identify the potential benefits and drawbacks of the different approaches available. Where drawbacks are identified, we will describe how we can avoid, limit or counter these effects.

Our Sustainability Appraisal will meet the statutory requirements of a Strategic Environmental Assessment and some organisations are required to respond to this section.

Members of the public are welcome to read and respond to this section, but it is fine to miss this section out if it is not of interest to you.

We are in the early stages of our Sustainability Appraisal, where we determine which topics should be considered in our assessment. This stage is known as Scoping. We have produced a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report to show how and why we have selected the following topics for further assessment:

• Population and Human Health
• Access and Recreation
• Economic Activity
• Flooding and the Economy
• Land Use and the Economy
• Material Assets – Critical Infrastructure
• Biodiversity
• Water
• Soils and Geology
• Landscape and Visual Amenity
• Cultural Heritage and Archaeology
• Air Quality
• Climate Change
• Resource Use and Waste

The report includes background information on how and why these topics were selected. This starts with the relevant plans, policies and programmes in the River Thames Catchment. It then describes each of the topics listed above, and looks at how they may change in the future, without the Thames Valley Flood Scheme. We use this information to determine which topics should be included. We set a series of draft objectives to assess ways to manage flood risk in the Thames Valley.

As this is a long technical document, we have also produced a Sustainability Appraisal Scoping Report Summary including the important factors and draft objectives relating to each topic.

Next: Timeline

Previous: Project ambitions and working together