Scottish Environment Protection Agency
SEPAScotland's environmental regulator, responsible for flood risk management including flood maps, flood warning, and advising on planning applications in flood risk areas.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) is Scotland’s principal environmental regulator, equivalent to the Environment Agency in England. SEPA has statutory responsibilities for flood risk management across Scotland under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009.
SEPA’s flood risk functions include:
- Flood hazard and risk maps: Publishing the SEPA Flood Maps, which show areas at risk from river (fluvial), coastal, and surface water flooding across Scotland. These maps serve a similar purpose to the Environment Agency’s Flood Map for Planning in England.
- Flood warning: Operating Floodline, Scotland’s flood warning service, providing alerts to registered communities and individuals.
- Planning consultation: Acting as a statutory consultee for planning applications in flood risk areas, advising planning authorities on the adequacy of Flood Risk Assessments and drainage proposals.
- Flood risk management planning: Working with local authorities to produce Flood Risk Management Plans and Local Flood Risk Management Plans.
The Scottish planning framework differs from England’s in several respects. Scottish Planning Policy (SPP) uses a different classification system, and SEPA’s technical guidance (including the SEPA Technical Flood Risk Guidance) sets out specific requirements for hydraulic modelling, climate change allowances, and freeboard.
Aegaea has experience working with SEPA on projects in Scotland, applying the appropriate Scottish standards alongside our flood modelling and flood risk assessment capabilities.