Significant flood investigations

Dorset Council ensures that significant flood incidents are investigated. If another risk management authority is carrying out an investigation, a Dorset Council Flood Risk Management investigation is not necessary.

Within Dorset, a flood is deemed significant within a community if it:

  • caused internal flooding to five or more residential properties, or
  • flooded two or more business premises, or
  • flooded one or more items of critical infrastructure,
  • or caused a transport link to be totally impassable for a significant period

The flood investigation process as outlined in the Flood and Water Management Act is to:

  1. provide an understanding of the possible causes of flooding
  2. examine which flood risk management authorities or stakeholders are responsible for the flooding
  3. clearly outline and assign any necessary actions to appropriate flood risk management authorities or stakeholders

The scale of the flood investigation report will vary according to the requirements of an incident.

View the previous flood investigations:

If you need any of these reports in a different format, contact Flood Risk Management.

Investigating a general flood enquiry

General flood enquiries are defined as any flood events caused by local flooding (ground water, surface water or an ordinary water course) that do not meet the criteria to be considered as 'significant' flooding. These smaller incidents vary vastly in their severity and impact.

Responses to general flood enquiries can be time consuming to resolve and often require intensive communication between various stakeholders to develop agreed actions to reduce the impact of flooding in the future. General flood enquiries are prioritised based on risk to life, impact, extent and frequency.

Flood Risk Management

Email: floodriskmanagement@dorsetcouncil.gov.uk
Full contact details