english heritage - asessing the risk of flooding with gis

English Heritage is guardian to many of the most important archaeological and historic sites in the country. With just over 420 individual properties in its care ranging from prehistoric stone circles to a cold-war bunker, English Heritage needed a clear assessment of the threat flooding and erosion poses to its estate, recognising that the risks may be increasing in severity due to climate change. Coastal properties were assessed in 2011 and now work has just been completed assessing the risk flooding and erosion poses to the inland estate of some 360 properties. The challenge was to use GIS to assess the risk posed to each property from flooding using data supplied by the Environment Agency and then to prepare a report presenting the evidence for use by managers. The predicted impact on each estate was presented in tabular format using data derived from the project GIS along with more detailed assessments of 60 estates found to be at highest risk. The report concluded with an overall summary of the exposure of the English Heritage Estate to flood risk and put forward suggestions for future work to inform discussions between English Heritage, the Environment Agency and Local Authorities.