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Preliminary Flood Risk Assessment

The Flood Risk Regulations 2009 make the Floods Directive (Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the European Council on the assessment and management of flood risks) part of UK law. It requires the following to be repeated on a 6-yearly cycle:

PFRA map and report, from which Flood Risk Areas should be identified
Flood hazard and risk maps
Flood Risk Management Plans (FRMPs)

We are now in the second cycle of implementation and those products produced in the first cycle need to be reviewed. This review begins with the PFRAs.

In cycle 1, the then Environment Agency Wales (now Natural Resources Wales) decided to use an exemption and not to produce PFRAs for main rivers, the sea and reservoirs.

Lead Local Flood Authorities (LLFAs) were required to produce PFRAs in respect of surface water, ordinary watercourse and groundwater flood risks.

River Basin District preliminary flood risk reports

The three River Basin Districts cover the Dee, the Severn and Western Wales.

Dee PFRA
Severn PFRA
Western Wales PFRA

The Severn and the Dee are shared River Basin Districts with the Environment Agency.

We have worked with:

Welsh Government
Welsh Local Government Association
Lead Local Flood Authorities

The PFRAs identify those areas within Wales that are most at risk of flooding from:

main rivers
reservoirs
the sea
surface water
ordinary watercourses
groundwater

This begins with an assessment (from 2011 onwards) of significant past flooding that affected Wales, then considers the potential adverse consequences of future flooding.

We use this information to identify those areas within Wales that have the most significant flood risks.

These are known as Flood Risk Areas. The nine Flood Risk Areas and associated communities are:

Flood Risk Area	Community included
North Wales Coast	Rhyl
	Kinmel Bay
	Prestatyn
	Towyn
	Abergele
Flintshire	Queensferry-Sandycroft-Manor Lane
	Lache
	Garden City and Deeside Ind Est
	Connah's Quay and Shotton
Wrexham	Cefn-mawr - Acrefair
Gwynedd	Porthmadog
	Fairbourne
	Pwllheli
Monmouthshire	Abergavenny
Newport	Maindee
	Liswerry
	Duffryn
	Crindau

Cardiff	Grangetown
	Riverside
	Canton
	St Mellons
	Roath
South Wales Valleys	Rhondda
	Treorchy
	Merthyr Tydfil
	Troedyrhiw
	Treherbert
Swansea Bay	Port Talbot
	Briton Ferry
	Neath
	Swansea
	Llanelli

We will now begin working to produce flood hazard and flood risk maps for the Flood Risk Areas we have identified, by 22nd December 2019. The final step to complete the second cycle of the Floods Directive will be to produce Flood Risk Management Plans by 22nd December 2021.

As this is the first time consolidated Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments have been completed in Wales, we will focus on working collaboratively across Risk Management Authorities to better manage flood risk across Wales.

In late 2017 the 22 LLFAs in Wales reviewed their PFRAs and produced an addendum to their cycle 1 reports.