Could Campbeltown sink as flood risk rises?
CAMPBELTONIANS of the future could be using flippers to commute to work.
That or paddling a canoe, if the findings of a Scottish Natural Heritage commissioned report, Impacts of sea-level rise and storm surges due to climate change in the Firth of Clyde, are accurate.
The study, looking at the impact of higher sea levels during storm surges due to the rise in average sea level, was carried out to provide evidence of the predicted extent of sea-level rise and storm surges in the Firth of Clyde.
It details the associated risks to vulnerable habitats including coastal communities like Campbeltown, to help inform development planning and other strategies such as flood risk management and regional marine planning.
The study suggests that by 2080 the sea-level is projected to be 0.47m higher in the Firth of Clyde.
It suggested that future changes in storm surge would be very small, only millimetres, compared to the rise in sea level, which was predicted to be 10s of centimetres. The small increase in storm surge would equate to just one per cent of the anticipated sea-level rise, suggesting storm surges to sea level will change little with climate change in this area.
Not included in the study was the possible impact of ‘wave over-topping’ or surface water or rivers entering the Firth of Clyde, which are likely to exacerbate the effects of water levels in the Firth and increase erosion.
Areas particularly affected were likely to be salt-marshes and mudflat habitats, which would continue to erode as sea levels rise.
The information is backed up by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA)’s flood maps.
The Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 is the legislative instrument driving flood risk management in Scotland, placing a duty on Scottish pub- lic bodies to exercise their flood risk related functions with a view to reducing overall flood risk. SEPA, as the main government agency in charge of flood risk management, leads this collaborative approach and published the National Flood Risk Assessment in 2011 which included the location of potentially vulnerable areas.
According to one of SEPA’s maps of ‘areas that may flood’, Campbeltown is shown to be a ‘potentially vulnerable area’.
The area in danger stretches from Peninver in the north, all the way round the coast to Southend.
The only other area in Kintyre which shows as potentially vulnerable is on the north-east coast, near Tarbert.
Steps have already been taken towards reducing the current flooding problem in Campbeltown, which has caused damage for a number of years.
In 2015, Councillor Donald Kelly raised a flood plan proposal at an area committee meeting and Argyll and Bute Council agreed to undertake a remedial programme of works to bring a flood prevention plan to Campbeltown.