Our national assessment of flood risk for Wales sets out the current level of risk from rivers and the sea and what the Environment Agency is doing to manage it.
What does the report tell us?
This report explains how we tackle the risk of flooding in Wales, looking mainly at flooding from rivers and the sea. It includes:
- The main findings of the 2008 National Assessment of Flood Risk (NaFRA).
- The causes of flooding in Wales and the range of activities underway to manage flood risk.
- An overview of our strategy and policy framework and the key organisations that we work with to protect people and property from flooding.
Our NaFRA 2008 update on 'What's in your backyard?' took place on 25 June 2009.
Numbers of properties and infrastructure at risk
Our assessment shows that:
- One in six properties in Wales is at risk of flooding.
- Over 220,000 properties at risk of flooding from rivers or the sea in Wales, of which 64,000 are at significant risk.
- 97,000 of these are also vulnerable to surface water flooding with a further 137,000 properties susceptible to surface water flooding alone.
- 57 per cent living in flood risk areas knew they were at risk and for these three out of five of them had taken some action to prepare for flooding.
- People in 47,000 properties have now signed up for our Floodline Warnings Direct service in Wales.
As well as providing more detailed information on where the greatest risks are, the report also shows that a sizeable part of the nation's important infrastructure and public services are in flood risk areas. For example, over 80 per cent of water and sewage pumping stations/treatment works are in flood risk areas, with 67 per cent at significant risk.
