Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom Developing a strong framework for adaptation planning London will soon release its adaptation strategy, which is the culmination of ten years of effort on the part of the city and relevant stakeholders. The strategy outlines a series of proposed actions the city should take in order to meet the challenges of climate change. For London, these mainly relate to flooding, drought and excessive temperatures. London’s work on adaptation has benefited from strong and consistent political support, which has been the driving force for the setting up of other enabling factors such as financial support and a coordination unit in the form of the London Climate Change Partnership. Climate change is an added challenge for the city’s water managers, which must already cope with water scarcity, population growth and deteriorating infrastructure. London is predicted to face increased droughts, excessive temperatures and flooding – mainly from stormwater. The city has derived precise climate change predictions from modelling work by researchers at the national level. Such cooperation with researchers is but one of the enabling factors in place in London: others are political commitment, stakeholder involvement, open communication, appropriate coordination and finally the allocation of dedicated funding for adaptation work.

Population: 7 800 000 (2009) Land area: 1,572 km2

The London Climate Change Partnership has been an instrumental force in the coordination and stimulation of the city’s work on climate change. This platform for stakeholder engagement has been in place for ten years and regularly gathers together representatives from London’s key adaptation stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs and utilities. The Partnership has played an important advocacy and dissemination role throughout London’s thorough work on adaptation, and will continue to be instrumental in the implementation of London’s adaptation strategy.

London's climate profile London’s climate is temperate with a maritime influence, meaning that weather is changeable and often overcast, with a uniform distribution of precipitation across the year. Although London has the reputation of being a rather wet city, it is actually one of the driest capital cities in the world, with available water resources per capita on a par with those of Israel (LCCP, 2002). Its summers are relatively cool and its winters are mild, and the city does not usually suffer from temperature extremes. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, the UK’s climate is more temperate than its latitude warrants, and seasonal variations are not extreme like in continental climates; the UK is therefore unused to extreme weather events. Because of the urban heat island effect, London can be up to 5°C warmer than surrounding areas. This case study was produced for the SWITCH project’s “Adapting urban water systems to climate change” handbook, which can be found on www.adaptationhandbook.org The SWITCH project (2006-2011) aimed to achieve more sustainable urban water management in the “City of the Future”. A consortium of 33 partner organisations from 15 countries worked on innovative scientific, technological and socio-economic solutions with the aim of encouraging widespread uptake around the world. www.switchurbanwater.eu

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Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Climate projections for the area It is projected that London will in the future face an increased risk of floods, droughts and high temperatures; in general, the southeast of England is projected to experience hotter, drier summers and winters that are warmer and have higher precipitation. The south of England will experience more warming than the rest of the UK. This will increase the existing precipitation imbalance in the country – the southeast is already the area of the country with the least precipitation, and has been classified as “severely water stressed.” Changing climate patterns, together with regulations from the EU which mandate the preservation of minimum environmental flows, will influence the management of water supplies. Sea level rise is also a consideration for London, but not to a major extent as of yet. Indeed, the UK’s Environment Agency has determined that storm surges due to climate change-driven sea level rise will be less frequent than previously thought. As a result, flood defences already in place, such as the Thames Barrier, will have a longer lifespan than was anticipated. The Thames Estuary 2100 report has shown that optimisation and maintenance of current defences will likely be sufficient until approximately 2070 (if predictions of sea level rise remain as they are), at which point options for going forward will be reassessed given the conditions in place. Of course, if predictions change, for example if the melting of polar ice caps accelerates, London’s flood defences may prove insufficient. The Thames Barrier (© iStockphoto.com/TonyBaggett)

London in context London is the United Kingdom’s capital, its largest and most populated city as well as its economic, financial and cultural capital. It is a very old settlement – dating back to Roman times – strategically located on the Thames River near the coast. The Thames River, which runs through the centre of the city, has always played an important economic and cultural role. London is located near its mouth, where the river is tidal. London is underlain by sand and gravel deposits and further below by clay which sits on top of a chalk aquifer. Currently, most of the city’s water is sourced from the Thames, with a smaller percentage sourced from tributaries of the Thames and the chalk aquifer. London has an ancient history of water management. Improvements have usually been the product of necessity. Those in the 18th and 19th centuries were driven partly by the rapid growth of the city’s population (with associated negative consequences in terms of contaminated water) and by advances in technical and scientific knowledge made at that time. For example, the construction of London’s sewer network was stimulated by the ‘Great Stink’ of 1858, where excessive summer temperatures interacted with raw sewage in the Thames to produce an overwhelming smell which caught the attention of policy makers. Interestingly, although the construction of sewers, the use of sand filtration, the shift of water intakes and the more downstream location of sewer outfalls improved sanitation, these measures were actually stimulated by the belief that bad smells led to diseases rather than by a scientifically accurate assessment.

Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Privatisation of water and wastewater management in the UK happened in 1989. In London, Thames Water is the company managing water and sewage for the whole of London, although in some suburban areas water supply is covered by other companies. This management system has been criticised for its fragmentation (Green, 2010). Because of the particular water management responsibilities within London, the main challenge is often to apply proven water management measures rather than to come up with new ones. Indeed, municipal authorities do not have the power to manage demand by setting price signals, nor can they reduce leakages or mandate water efficiency criteria. Cooperation with water utilities is a necessity deriving from the privatisation of London’s water. The city’s water supply and wastewater systems are starting to show their age, with iron water pipes suffering from leakage and many misconnections at the household level in separate sewer systems. Other factors also play a role; for example, industrial activity in the past relied heavily on groundwater abstraction. As industrial activity has decreased markedly, groundwater levels are bouncing back, which can pose problems for underground infrastructure built in the intervening years such as the London Underground. London is densely populated and culturally diverse; its population is projected to keep growing, mostly as a result of migration – this has implications for future water demand. Since most future development will happen in formerly industrial brownfield sites within London’s green belt, the city is due to become even more densely populated and vulnerable to climate change. The location of these sites generally near water bodies gives added impetus to the restoration of formerly polluted rivers and canals. London is vulnerable to tidal flooding, fluvial flooding and in particular to surface water flooding when stormwater overwhelms drainage systems. Most of London’s critical infrastructure is located in flood risk areas, as are its poorest inhabitants.

Adaptation planning in London London’s adaptation strategy is currently in the final stages of being written, having finished its public consultation stage. It is the culmination of 10 years of work on the part of the city and other actors. London and the UK have a long experience of working on climate change issues. The United Kingdom Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP) was set up in 1997 by the national government in order to boost research into issues relating to climate change. UKCIP manages, among other things, UKCP09 which are the national climate projections produced by the Met Office Hadley Centre using their own downscaled models. The availability of such detailed and locally-specific climate data has been beneficial for London. By encouraging the establishment of regional stakeholder groups to look at climate impacts, UKCIP contributed to the creation of the London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP). The LCCP was created in 2001, with the original aim of commissioning a comprehensive study on the impacts of climate change for London. The study, “London’s warming,” was published in 2002. It outlined some possible adaptation options in response to identified climate change impacts. These initial adaptation options have been followed up by the LCCP, with more detailed publications about adaptation in transport and commercial buildings. The LCCP has also derived lessons from the experience of other cities with similar projected climate impacts.

© Anne-Claire Loftus

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Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Some key actors in London’s adaptation work The Greater London Authority (GLA), established in 2000, is the administrative body for Greater London, which brings together a variety of planning functions (including environmental planning) under the responsibility of the mayor. Its role in climate change adaptation is vital, since it has the strategic capacity to plan for change. Adaptation to climate change is included within the GLA’s chief framework planning document, the “London Plan.” For example, according to the plan boroughs should factor in the presence of green roofs in planning permission decisions and should also consider the flood risk of proposed developments. The GLA has also played a leadership role in climate change mitigation, adopting targets for greenhouse gas emissions reductions that surpass national-level goals. The GLA supports and participates in the LCCP, but is also responsible for the development of London’s adaptation strategy. The London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP) facilitates cooperation among London’s climate change stakeholders. The LCCP includes representatives from government departments, NGOs, utilities, insurance companies, other businesses, etc. As of April 2011, it had over 30 members, including:

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Association of British Insurers British Retail Consortium Citi Group City of London Corporation Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Department of Health Energy Saving Trust Environment Agency Greater London Authority Homes and Communities Agency KPMG Lloyd’s London Councils London Development Agency London Sustainability Exchange (LSx) Met Office Natural England Sustainable Homes Thames Water Utilities Ltd Transport for London UK Climate Impacts Programme (UKCIP)

The implementation of London’s adaptation plan will be facilitated by the LCCP, which can leverage the involvement and support of national authorities and regulators. The LCCP also play an advocacy role, promoting the consideration of climate change within all governmental plans and policies, as well as a dissemination role.

Results London is already implementing some adaptive actions. These include the Thames Estuary study mentioned above, an extensive household water efficiency retrofitting programme that aims to create a buffer against the impacts of climate change, a modelling initiative to better understand the complex interactions between climate risks, and an urban greening programme to decrease stormwater runoff and reduce urban temperatures. Drain London is another such project. It aims to get all London boroughs, which have responsibility for stormwater management, to produce Surface Water Management plans that are coherent across the capital. Most of the adaptation actions considered so far by London have focused on ‘no-regret’ options that will produce co-benefits regardless of future conditions, in light of the uncertainty of climate change manifestations and impacts (Hunt & Watkiss, 2010).

Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Some solutions proposed by London would also serve an adaptation purpose but have been designed mainly to address current problems. One such solution is the Thames Tunnel, which will convey excess stormwater through a large tunnel out to a treatment plant closer to the estuary. The tunnel is a proposed response to the current problem of combined sewer overflows which currently go straight into the Thames and threaten water quality. The tunnel will help London meet the requirements of EU regulation. London’s draft adaptation strategy identifies and explains the three main impacts of climate change for the capital, namely flooding, drought and overheating. It also assesses the consequences of climate change for urban systems such as health, infrastructure and the environment. For each of the 3 main climate change impacts, the strategy assesses the associated probability and vulnerability, and also sets out a number of adaptive actions that need to be put in place to reduce this vulnerability, as explained in the box below (GLA, 2010).

Exploratory work to determine ground conditions for the proposed Thames Tunnel (© Thames Water)

Climate change impact

Probability of occurrence

Vulnerability

Response

Examples of associated actions

Flooding

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High

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Improve the understanding of flood risk in London and how climate change will alter the risks Reduce flood risk to the most critical assets and vulnerable communities Raise public awareness of flooding and individual and community capacity to cope and recover from a flood

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Taking a strategic view on London’s water resources Reducing the demand for water in London Improving the response to drought

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Publish and regularly review a London Water Strategy that presents a London-specific view of managing water resources, with the goal of improved water management.

Improve the understanding of overheating risk in London by identifying who and what is affected and where is most at risk Manage rising temperatures in London by increasing the amount of green space and vegetation in the city Reduce the risk of overheating and the need for mechanical cooling in new and existing development and infrastructure Ensure London has a robust heatwave plan

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Undertake a feasibility study into creating and maintaining a network of weather stations across London to improve our understanding of London’s microclimate and the impact of urban greening measures on managing temperatures. Increase tree cover across London by five per cent (from 20 to 25 per cent) by 2025. Assess and promote ‘cool roof technology’ (highly reflective, well-insulated roofs) in London to reduce demand for mechanical cooling.

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Tidal flooding: low River flooding: medium Surface water flooding: high

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» Increasing

Drought

Low

Medium

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» Increasing

• Overheating

High

High

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» Increasing

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Improve the mapping of who and what is at risk from all sources of flooding today, and to predict future flood risk for all flood sources. Reduce the risk of local surface water flooding, by working with Transport for London (TfL), the London boroughs and Thames Water to review their drain and gully maintenance programmes, particularly in high-risk areas.

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Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Lessons learned Section 2.2 of the SWITCH adaptation handbook “Adapting urban water systems to climate change” highlights four main areas which can help strengthen the planning process for adaptation. These are: political commitment, internal coordination, collaboration with research and stakeholder involvement. London has all of these in place and more.

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Securing political support. Former mayor Ken Livingstone’s commitment to climate change action led to him placing the GLA firmly in charge of incorporating climate change considerations (both mitigation and adaptation) in all areas of planning. His successor, Mayor Boris Johnson, has taken up the challenge of climate change and is driving forward elements such as the adaptation strategy. Creating an internal coordination unit. The LCCP has been instrumental in fostering cooperation across the public and private sector and in facilitating the interaction of stakeholders across the London area. The LCCP’s composition, mandate and regular interaction have all helped move adaptation forward. Engaging with stakeholders. The LCCP has also acted as London’s venue for stakeholder engagement regarding adaptation, as has the GLA, as shown in the next point. The evolution of the LCCP from a temporary structure to a permanent venue for stakeholder participation in London’s climate change work has helped secure the long-term involvement of stakeholders. Presentations and workshops for stakeholders are also a means with which to build awareness and support. London ran for example a series of workshops where stakeholders were first asked to assess how climate change might affect the benchmarks they use to measure success in their activities and then to brainstorm about adaptation options. During follow-up meetings, a subset of participants was then asked to help contribute to specific elements of the adaptation strategy that concern their sector of activity. Stakeholder involvement in the adaptation process has proved essential to its relevance and success; stakeholders from a variety of backgrounds help make sure that sectoral impacts and impact thresholds are properly identified. They also participate in the dissemination of study findings and help ensure that studies are geared towards their needs. Communicating openly. Both the LCCP and the GLA maintain information-filled websites for outreach to the public. The draft London adaptation strategy was available for comment on the website for a certain period. London’s outreach also seeks to take advantage of new media such as videos uploaded on YouTube and social networking sites; for example, public comments on the draft adaptation strategy could be linked to sites like facebook and twitter with the click of a mouse.

User comments from the website for London's adaptation strategy (Source: www.london.gov.uk/climatechange)

Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

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Obtaining data and support from researchers. London works in close association with researchers such as the UKCIP, which have provided focused climate forecasts necessary to the setting of an adaptation strategy. London has also been cooperating with the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in the creation of an Urban Integrated Assessment Facility (UIAF). The UIAF enables the simulation of the interaction between complex processes in the capital, and considers models of climate, socio-economic and land use change (Nickson, 2010). Allocating specific funds for adaptation. London has allocated discrete funding for the realisation of adaptation planning and implementation, for example being ready to fund the salaries of staff involved in adaptation.

London’s experience with adaptation is not completely positive, and the very fact that the city has faced challenges despite having so many enabling factors in place is a sobering lesson for other cities.

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Adaptation cannot be achieved overnight. Despite the plethora of success factors listed above, and despite having set up the LCCP in 2001, London has still not released its final adaptation strategy, nor has it implemented many adaptation actions. Adaptation planning is therefore a time-consuming process (if done properly). It is not always easy to involve all relevant stakeholders. In London, some stakeholders who probably should be are not involved in the LCCP, including land developers, landowners, boroughs and some affected businesses (Tucker, 2005, as cited in Ligeti, 2007). Splits in responsibilities can challenge A Thames Water ‘bubbler’ vessel, improving oxygen levels in the Thames following a effective cooperation. Because the storm (© Thames Water) GLA is comprised of many boroughs and because of the particular division of power between the different levels of government, reaching agreement can be difficult. Hindrance to taking a long-term perspective of management. In the UK, water companies must submit five year business plans to regulators; these plans explain how the companies are to finance their long-term (25 year) Water Resource Management Plans (WRMPs). As a result, short-term financial considerations can take precedence over long-term sustainable supply and demand balancing (Nickson, 2010).

London offers an excellent example of a methodical adaptation process backed up by sound research, excellent stakeholder involvement, public consultation, political commitment and financial resources.

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Adapting urban water systems to climate change CASE STUDY London, United Kingdom

Key contacts London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP) Juliette Daniels, Manager [email protected] Tel: +44 / 20 7983 5781 www.london.gov.uk/lccp

Sources Environment Agency. (2009). Thames Estuary 2100: Managing flood risk through London and the Thames estuary. TE2100 Plan Consultation Document. Rotherham: Environment Agency. Greater London Authority (GLA). (2008). The London Plan – Spatial Development Strategy for Greater London: Consolidated with Alterations since 2004. London: GLA. Greater London Authority (GLA). (2010). The draft climate change adaptation strategy for London – Public Consultation Draft. London: GLA. Green, C. (2010). The transition to sustainable urban water management: London case study. SWITCH – Managing Water for the City of the Future. Hunt, A. & Watkiss, P. (2011). Climate change impacts and adaptation in cities: a review of the literature. Climatic Change, 104, 13–49. Ligeti, E. (2007). Cities preparing for climate change: A study of six urban regions. Toronto: Clean Air Partnership. London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP). (n.d.). Publications. Retrieved from http:// www.london.gov.uk/lccp/publications/ London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP). (2002). London’s warming: A climate change impacts in London evaluation study. London: Greater London Authority. London Climate Change Partnership (LCCP). (2006). Adapting to climate change: Lessons for London. London: Greater London Authority. Nickson, A. (2010). London. In P. Dircke, J. Aerts, A. Molenaar, Connecting delta cities – Sharing knowledge and working on adaptation to climate change (pp. 72-85). Rotterdam: City of Rotterdam. Pageler, M. (2009). Local government perspective on adapting water management to climate change. London and The Hague: International Water Association (IWA).

Author information Anne-Claire Loftus, ICLEI European Secretariat www.iclei-europe.org Email: [email protected] © ICLEI European Secretariat, April 2011