Flood-Risk Evidence Assembly and Sequential-Test Workspace
Flood-risk planning requires combining national maps, local SFRAs, climate-change scenarios, site vulnerability and sequential/exception tests. Applicants and officers often assemble this evidence manually across multiple sources. Environment Agency guidance updated in May and August 2026 continues to require current national risk information and site-specific FRAs in defined circumstances, while councils such as Arun are publishing new 2026 SFRAs. The repeated workflow is assembling national and local evidence, classifying vulnerability and documenting sequential or exception-test reasoning. Operational consequences: - Consultants spend desk time locating the current SFRA appendix, EA mapping and climate-change allowance relevant to one site. - Sequential-test searches need a defensible record of alternatives and why sites were excluded. - Changes to national flood datasets can make an earlier screening conclusion stale. - Smaller planning practices can over-commission specialist work or discover flood evidence requirements late.