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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
•
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
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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