ABI

Association of British Insurers

ACPO

Association of Chief Police Officers

AIRMIC

The Association of Insurance and Risk Managers, a UK trade association representing the interests of corporate insurance buyers.

ALARM

Association of Local Authority Risk Managers. Association for insurance buyers in local authorities.

AMP

Asset Management Plan. The Water Industry in England and Wales uses AMPs for their expenditure on improvements. The current AMP is AMP3, worth £5.1 bn, of which a third is allocated to CSO improvements. AMP1 ran from privatisation in 1989 to 1994. AMP2 ran from 1995 to 2000. AMPs are also used in Scotland

BBSRC

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council - has replaced Agriculture and Food Research Council

Bellwin Scheme

A UK Government scheme for providing emergency assistance to local authorities to help rebuild infrastructure after a disaster.

BUHRC

Benfield UCL Hazard Research Centre at UCL

BMP

Best Management Practice

BNSC

British National Space Centre. Administers and co-ordinates UK commercial satellite instrument projects and development. Funded by the DTI

CASI

Combined Airborne Spectrographic Instrument. Used in conjunction with LiDAR for aerial surveys to help establish land use information.

CEH

Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. Formerly the Institute of Hydrology . Based at Wallingford , Oxfordshire, on the same site as HR Wallingford, a separate research centre, which researches hydraulics and has large physical laboratories.

CII

Chartered Insurance Institute. The body which sets academic standards for insurance practitioners.

CILA

Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters

CIRIA

Construction Industry Research and Information Association.

CIWEM

Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Managers

CML

Council of Mortgage Lenders, a UK trade association representing the interests of banks, building societies and other financial institutions involved in mortgage lending.

CoSLA

Convention of Scottish Local Authorities

crypto sporidium

This is a serious disease, which can be fatal to vulnerable age groups. The disease is spread by sheep, fox, and rat droppings in drinking or bathing water. Heavy rain washes these into watercourses and drinking water reservoirs.

CSO

Combined Sewer Overflow. Current practice for new urban wastewater collection systems normally involve the design of separate systems for wastewater (effluent) and rainfall derived storm water runoff. Historically, these systems were combined in a single pipe and most of the UK systems are combined. CSOs exist as relief valves to prevent damage to the sewers or the treatment works from certain rainfall events.

DAN

Development Advice Note. Issued by Scottish Planning Departments to advise the public and developers of what is and is not acceptable for developments. These notes can be produced in evidence at a Reporter's Inquiry so they are important.

DEFRA

Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

DEM

Digital Elevation Model showing the height of the land on a GIS.

DETR

Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions. Replaced by DEFRA/DTLR.

DFID

Department For International Development

DFT

Department For Transport

DG

Director General

DTI

Department of Trade and Industry

DTLR

Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions - now DFT and ODPM

Dundee Tables

Tables published by the University of Dundee , based on a database of thousands of flood claims from the top 25 UK insurance companies. See Black, A and Evans, S (1999) "Flood damage in the UK : New insights for the insurance industry." University of Dundee . ISBN 0 903674 37 8. Dundee , Scotland .

E - Coli

Escherichia coli. A form of bacteria often found in manure. If washed into watercourses, it could end up in the public water supply and can be fatal to vulnerable age groups.

E & W

England and Wales

EA

Environment Agency

ECHO

European Community Humanitarian Office.

EN

English Nature

EPS

Emergency Planning Society

EPSRC

Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Administers Government research grants. See also NERC.

ESSC

Environmental Systems Science Centre at the university of Reading

EU

European Union

FLAG

Flood Appraisal Group

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions.

FASTER

Flood and STorm Event Report. A streamlined system for collecting data after a major flood or storm event. Piloted with major loss adjusters and found to increase efficiency and speed of reporting claims as well as enabling fraudulent claims to be spotted more easily. Supported in 1999 by the LPC and the ABI and by a special ABI Claims Panel working group set up to look at it, but not implemented. Subsequently recommended in the CII book on climate change in 2001.

FEH

Flood Estimation Handbook. Replaced the FSR in January 2001 as the "bible" for hydrologists and consulting engineers for the flood risk assessments etc. Published by CEH after six years work. Costs around £6k to buy.

FEMA

USA Federal Emergency Management Agency

FHRC

The Flood Hazard Research Centre at Middlesex University .

Floodplain

Environment Canada defines a floodplain as "Any normally dry land area that is susceptible to being inundated by water from any natural source. This area is usually low land adjacent to a stream or lake"

In Scotland , the authorities distinguish between the "functional floodplain" and floodplain generally. A functional floodplain is an area which is needed to store water in order to protect properties downstream from flooding. Any new building in the functional floodplain is discouraged, but if it is allowed in exceptional cases, compensatory new flood storage areas must be provided.

The Environment Agency uses the following definition of floodplain;

'Floodplain is defined as all land adjacent to a watercourse over which water flows in the time of flood, or would flow but for the presence of flood defences where they exist. The limits of floodplain are defined by the peak water level of an appropriate return period event on the watercourse or at the coast. On rivers, this will normally be the greater of the 1 in 100 year return period or the highest known water level. In the coastal areas the 1 in 200 year flood or the highest known flood will be used, whichever is the greater. In both instances where a flood defence exists which protects to a greater standard than those defined, then the floodplain is the area defended to the design water level.'

FSA

Financial Services Authority. The Government "watchdog" for the finance industry. Responsible for protecting consumers against insurance insolvencies or sharp practice. In November 2001 it introduced a new "risk based" assessment procedure for insurers to identify those which were at greater risk of insolvency. According to information given to the author by the FSA, this could include the monitoring of exposure to flood claims, especially coastal flood.

FSR

Flood Studies Report. Published in 1975 and used by engineers to design many of our current bridges, dams and flood defences. Replaced by FEH in 2001. Research indicates that the different methodology and data used with FEH can produce rather different results from analyses using FSR, and there is concern that many structures designed using FSR may be more at risk from future flooding events than was previously realised.

Gardit

(General Aquifer, Research, Development and Investigation Team) was established in 1992, to tackle the rising groundwater problem in London (See the Rising Groundwater section in this report) For details, see:

http://www.thameswateruk.co.uk/clrg/solution_frameset.html

GIS

Geographic Information Systems. A computer application in which any data with a spatial element (for example postcode) can be overlaid on maps.

Greywater

Greywater is water from sinks and washing machines, often containing detergent or cooking oil. ("whitewater" or " clearwater " is sometimes used to refer to clean water from roofs or pavements)

HR Wallingford

The Hydraulic Research centre at Wallingford , Oxfordshire. See also CEH.

IoH

Institute of Hydrology . See CEH.

IoH 130

Report 130 from the Institute of Hydrology (now called the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology). This report contains indicative flood maps for England and Wales . A supplement contains maps for Scotland . Flood hazard areas are shown for non tidal main rivers for a 100 year return period, ignoring the effects of flood defences.

IT

Information Technology.

ITE

Institute of Terrestrial Ecology

LCO

Lloyds Claims Office. This office assesses disasters and where necessary allocates catastrophe event codes to assist with identifying events for reinsurance purposes. Thus the storm in October 1987 was coded as "87J".

LGA

Local Government Association (E&W)

LiDAR

LASER Instrument Detection and Ranging. The latest airborne instruments can provide a point density of 1 metre, a swath of 750metres and a typical height accuracy of plus or minus 15 cm. Surveys can be flown day or night and in cloudy weather. This is a very effective way to produce topographic maps with accurate height measurements.

LPC

Loss Prevention Council. At one time part owned by the ABI. Now part of the BRE.

MAHB

Major Accident Hazards Bureau (covers natural and man made hazards) See http://nedies.jrc.it

MHWS

Mean High Water Spring. This is the contour shown on Ordnance survey maps. It represents the height of Ordnance Datum average high tide level during a spring tide. This is not necessarily the high tide height at the place shown.

MLURI

Macaulay Land Use Research Institute. Based in Aberdeen , this is the Scottish equivalent of the Silsoe Soil Research Institute in England . They have considerable GIS expertise and detailed land use maps.

MSP

Member of the Scottish Parliament.

NATECHS

Natural hazards triggering TECHnological disasters. See
http://nedies.jrc.it

NEDIES

Natural and Environmental Disaster Information Exchange System. See http://nedies.jrc.it

NERC

Natural Environment Research Council. Administers Government research funding on projects related to the natural environment.

NFCDD

National Flood and Coastal Defence Database (Environment Agency). The establishment of this database is a requirement under the DEFRA High Level Targets for flood and coastal defence operating authorities.

The system is now utilised within the Agency and from March 2004, it was made available to operating authorities. At the time of writing (August 2004) the author has as yet no news of it becoming available to the public or insurers.

NHBC

National House Building Council. Funded by the building industry, inspects new houses during construction and underwrites a ten year insurance scheme for major defects in new housing.

NHBF

National House Builders Federation. Trade association for house builders.(see also SHBA)

NNR

National Nature Reserve

NPPG

National Planning Policy Guidelines ( Scotland )

NPPG 7

National Planning Policy Guideline 7. Issued by the Scottish Office (now the Scottish Executive) in 1995 to give guidelines to planners about developments in flood hazard areas. Recommends the establishment of Flood Liaison and Advice Groups with insurance representation.

NRSC

National Remote Sensing Centre

ODPM

Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. See http://www.odpm.gov.uk/

Replaces many of the functions of DTLR

OFWAT

Office of Water Services

OS

Ordnance Survey.

PAG

Project Appraisal Guidelines. Published by MAFF to provide guidance on the development of flood alleviation schemes. For example, PAG 3 relates to cost benefit appraisals of proposed schemes.

PAN

Planning Advice Note. Issued by the Scottish Executive to assist planners.

PDPF

Property Developers' Planning Forum. Set up by Homes for Scotland to give Scottish Property Developers an opportunity to discuss planning issues.

PPG

Planning Policy Guidelines. Published by DETR to guide planners on issues such as contaminated land. For example, PPG 25 relates to flooding hazards. (see also NPPG 7)

PS InSAR

Permanent Scatterer Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry. A revolutionary technique pioneered in the UK and Italy to measure sub millimetre movements in ground, buildings and structures. Gives early warning of subsidence, collapse, volcanic eruption or earthquake. For example, used by Thames Water to monitor reservoir embankments.

RFDC

Regional Flood Defence Committees

RMED

The median of annual maximum rainfall at a site. Used by hydrologists to assess flood hazard.

'SAFER'

Strategies and Actions/Implementations for Flood Emergency Risk Management. An EU funded project to reduce flood risk using sustainable solutions. Participants are Scotland , Ireland , Germany and Switzerland . For details of the Scottish involvement, search the web site of www.forestry.gov.uk

SAN

Supplementary Advice Note. Another name for a DAN.

SAR

Synthetic Aperture Radar. A type of instrument used on satellites or aircraft. Can measure surface roughness or changes in topography (for example due to flooding). Can be used at night or with thick cloud cover.

SCOTS Group

Society of Chief Officers of Transportation in Scotland . Commissions research reports and has issued reports on flood related topics such as legislative framework, planning, and emergency planning.

SEERAD

Scottish Executive Environment and Rural Affairs Department

SEPA

Scottish Environment Protection Agency

SHS

Scottish Hydrological Society

SLF

Scottish Landowners Federation

SME

Small and medium sized enterprises

SNH

Scottish Natural Heritage

SNIFFER

Scottish and Northern Ireland Forum For Environmental Research

SOLACE

Society Of Local Authority Chief Executives.

SSDP

Scottish Society of Directors of Planning

SUDS

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems. Not necessarily restricted to urban use, (and now generally called simply "Sustainable Drainage Systems") the concept is to minimise surface water run off from a new building development to contain it to the same levels as applied before the development.

SUSTAINABLE FLOOD MANAGEMENT

"Managing the natural process of flooding on a catchment scale using natural features , to their maximum potential." (source, WWF)

Swales

An area of ground, usually part of a SUDS scheme where the ground is lower to create a permeable shallow ditch for disposal of surface water. It should also have an incline so that surface water, which does not soak into the ground, can run off to soakaways. Otherwise, a swale can turn into an elongated pond during heavy rainfall.

TCPA

Town and Country Planning Association

TSUNAMI

Technology and Science in UNiversities, And Met office, for Insurance applications. In the context of this report, this refers to a consortium of major companies from the UK insurance industry, which has been funding research into various aspects of insurance and insured perils.

UCL

University College London

Water Watch

A service by CEH and others to record hydrological events such as rainfall, river flow and dam storage of water. See http://www.nerc-wallingford.ac.uk/ih/nrfa/water_watch/index.htm

WEWSA

Water Environment and Water Services ( Scotland ) Act 2004.

This Act transposes the European Water Framework Directive (WFD) into Scots Law. The WFD promotes a catchment wide approach to how we manage our water environment and aims to protect and improve water quality and associated habitats. Unlike the Directive, which barely mentions flooding, WEWSA has been extended after strong lobbying in Scotland to include flood management at a catchment scale, as part of river basin planning.

WFD

Water Framework Directive.

WTI

Water Training Institute. A charitable company, which organises training courses for those in the water industry. Contact mmcgowan.house@wti.co.uk

WWF

World Wide Fund for nature.