Welcome to the WAVE Project

How will climate change affect Somerset?

This website describes how climate change impacts will affect the flood and water management in Somerset.

WAVE – “Water Adaptation is Valuable for Everybody” – is a partnership project supported by EU Interreg IVB NEW funding.

Through WAVE, organisations in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Somerset are working together to prepare for changes to water systems caused by climate change and help make these systems more ‘climate-resilient’.

Somerset partners in WAVE are Somerset County Council, Environment Agency, Farming and Wildlife Advisory Group (FWAG), Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Somerset Drainage Boards Consortium (SDBC) and Somerset Wildlife Trust (SWT).

Climate change poses a numbers of risks to Somerset, with sea level rise, changing weather patterns and increased storminess likely to lead to both increased and prolonged flooding, together with the increased likelihood of summer droughts.

The Somerset WAVE project aims to better understand the likely impacts of climate change and the adaptations that will be required to deal with these.

The project:

  • Identifies the local effects of climate change in Somerset, and identifies how this can be communicated;

  • Helps manage the risks, through:

    • Sustainable management of excess water.
    • Reducing flood risks.
  • Raises awareness, so that landowners and local communities are better informed on how they can and will need to adapt to a changing climate.

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