The Environment Agency has disclosed six dashboard-style analysis reports from its FCRM Engagement metrics database, following an information request that I submitted last month.
Download: NR300765.zip (1.7 MB)
The reports are in PDF format and the information is re-usable under the terms of the Open Government Licence.
FCRM stands for Flood and Coastal Risk Management. I requested this information after the EA published a metadata record that described the database:
Displays information for all areas showing the impact of our FCRM engagement. Includes engagement information on resilience (volunteers trained, community emergency plans written), and data that helps measure the impact of our engagement around maintenance and schemes.
However, the EA has clarified that the metadata record was published due to an administrative error, and that it did not intend to publish the analysis reports due to "identified limitations in data collection". The latest version of the database is the analysis report for October to March 2018/19.
Further comments from the EA:
"We began gathering this data to get an indication of how the Environment Agency is engaging with community volunteers. The data reflects the scale and geographic distribution of relationships we have with groups and individuals and not exact figures. In some areas that relationship is held by the local authorities so the data could not be verified to our desired standards.
"Due to restrictions as a result of the Covid pandemic our relationship with groups and volunteers had to change. We could not gather further data in this manner and began working on alternative ways to understand the flood volunteer landscape in the aftermath of the pandemic.
You may wish to view the report, Working together to adapt to a changing climate - flood and coast, published on GOV.UK. This follows a project commissioned by the Environment Agency's Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) research team. This is an example of our commitment and adaptation in ways of working, to ensure that people and places will be more resilient to flood and coastal change in a changing climate."