Description

The LifE (Long-term Initiatives in Flood-risk Environments) project is an integrated design approach to achieving sustainable, adaptable (to climate change) and safer development. This report shows how this can be achieved, what it might cost and how it might look. The project has been funded by DEFRA as part of the 'Making space for water' programme. It combines planning policy with an integrated approach to masterplanning sustainable development, which allows us to live comfortably with water, not fight against it. It promotes innovative architectural and landscape solutions where it is not possible to locate development in areas of lower flood risk.

The report presents a shift in thinking by permitting water into sites in a controlled manner, to 'make space for water'. It identifies ways in which the means of managing flood risk becomes an asset to the community, such as recreation space and energy provision, and helps overcome economic and social objections to non-defensive flood risk management.