Climate change results in more intense rainfall, which increases the chances of flooding. There are 2 main types of flooding which happen as a result of rainfall: surface water floods and river floods. There’s also coastal flooding caused by storm surges. Coastal flooding will worsen in places under climate change due to rising sea levels and more intense storms.
Flooding can happen quite suddenly with devastating impact on people’s lives.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its comprehensive assessment of the physical science basis of climate change found that there is high confidence that this is an increasing trend in Europe (including the UK), especially for winter flooding.
Check out the coastal risk screening tool to view the projections over the coming years.
The UK Climate Change Committee warned in 2019 that the most recent climate change risk assessment revealed 1.4 million people in England currently face a risk of 1:75 or greater of flooding of any kind (including coastal) . This means there is a 1.33% chance of flooding in any given year and the current associated damages to homes cost £270 million annually. The number at this level of risk could increase to 1.7 million if global warming reaches 2˚C above the pre-industrial temperature.
London School of Economics, 2021