Here you will learn about the adaptation approaches that can be used to reduce the impacts expected from climate change by the 2050s on industry and business.

This includes the following topics:

• Business Parks and Industrial Estates;
• Ports and Harbours;
• Land Management.

The assessment is reported at Regional and Sub-regional scales only since further information would be needed regarding each individual asset to enable local detail reporting. 

There has been found that there is lack of awareness of climate change adaptation as an issue at the highest level in business, and that businesses have a great deal of difficultly identifying adaptation from mitigation. 

A report for Defra in November 2005 titled Climate Change and Adaptation: Business Impacts and Adaptation states that successful longer term adaptation requires that businesses:

• Recognise and act on opportunities and threats from an early stage
• Identify appropriate, proportionate responses
• Modify systems, structures, skillsets, financing etc to sustain and support the change and embed these in their company routine.
• Review nd feedback experience into the change process.  

The report also states that "barriers to change exist because climate change signals are difficult to recognise and will often require responses that run differently to established routines, timeframes, company culture and customer expectations.  Where planning horizons are short responsive strategies they can work well, but lack of a long term perspective could lead to sub-optimal decisions in the long term, creeping costs and missed opportunities." 

One of the main tools available to businesses to try and reduce or negate the impact from climate change is through the use of Business Continuity Management (BCM).  UK Resilience states that:

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards……..Good BCM helps organisations identify their key products and services and the threats to these.”

BCM is a process developed to counteract systems failure and is essential to all businesses regardless of size.  Ensuring that here is an effective business continuity plan in place is an invaluable step that can be taken to make sure that the services that operators deliver are maintained for as long as possible or that, if they are lost, there is sufficient contingency in place and that the service is recovered as quickly as possible.  One of the recommendations of the interim Pitt Review is that a duty should be placed on all utility suppliers in addition to local authorities and emergency services who are currently required to produce business continuity plans to the recently published British Standard level (BS 25 999) as part of emergency plans.  This is a welcome recommendation due to the major impact loss of utilities, such as communication and power, will have on the majority of businesses.

When considering BCM business will need to consider the effects of climate change on all the potential impacts outlined in this report along with those covered in greater detail in the UKCIP report: A Changing Climate for Business.  As outlined in these locations, not all impacts will be direct and business will need to think how they may be indirectly impacted, for instance almost all businesses affected by the summer flood of 2007 suffered direct losses to stock and equipment, but in addition staff were unable to operate normally either due to failure of the transport system, loss of power or communications resulting in lost orders and enquiries.  Extended impacts have particular effect on smaller businesses.  Additional problems also occurred due to the loss or damage of paperwork resulting in problems with insurance claims, lost orders and filling in tax returns.

The major adaptation recommendation at a regional level is that businesses need to investigate their critical infrastructure and the vulnerability of these critical assets.  This will need to be a detailed assessment of critical assets, suppliers and customers and how they themselves fit into this chain.  Cooperation between suppliers is the only way that this can be done effectively as the failure of one utility or business, who may be in an area at risk to climate impact (i.e. flooding) even if your own premises are not, may impact on your business.  This could be the major cause of impact their; without cooperation suppliers will not understand the criticality of each other and there interdependence.     

Further to this assessment at a managerial level, we have also considered impacts to the built environment of the main business headings for the North East Region, which are covered in the following sections.

Business Parks and Industrial Estates
The major concern for business parks is the increase in winter rainfall and the possibility that current drainage systems are not adequately sized to deal with this increased rainfall.  The strategies that could be adopted either exclusively or in combination is the increased transfer of water away from the business park or attenuation of the flow to allow transfer at the current rate.

To transfer the flow away more quickly the current drainage would need to be enlarged to accommodate the increased flows.  This enlargement could possibly be done using pipe bursting techniques to avoid any disruption or alternatively using traditional trench technology.  The new drainage design would have to be of sufficient size to accommodate the expected future changes due to climate change.

In combination with this any oil interceptors that currently are in use may also need replacing to accommodate the increased flow, with a new interceptor costing in the region of £15,000, although this is variable depending on factors such as the size, depth and location. The problem with increasing the transfer rate away from site is that it may cause flooding elsewhere or the flow to a watercourse may be restricted by a discharge license.

Installation of an interceptor

The increased flows could also be attenuated within the current site boundaries or nearby if space is available.  All opportunities and available space for attenuation should be utilised. 

The use of a green roof system would result in a reduction in the impermeable surface of sites and therefore reduce runoff.  Green roof suppliers suggest that up to 80% of storm water runoff can be attenuated by such systems, with a green roof costing around £40 per square metre based on an area of over 2,500 square metres, which is common for many industrial units, although the system can be used for any sized area and future extensions of units could utilise this technology.   This may not be applicable to existing buildings due to the increased roof loadings but should be considered for future developments or where the opportunity to retrofit exists.  Green roofs offer additional benefits and have been shown to reduce the energy required to heat and cool buildings.

The runoff from car parks and other hard-standing areas could be reduced by the use of reinforced grids in parking areas or other porous surfacing allowing infiltration to the ground beneath in areas with a low water table.  Where this is not possible or as an alternative, underground storage could be constructed beneath existing hard standing areas.  The drainage system could also be constructed or modified using oversized pipes thus providing pipe storage. 

Sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS) could also be utilised to provide the necessary storage.  Some car parks could be used as temporary attenuation ponds during periods of heavy rainfall and if space is available reed beds could be installed instead of an oil interceptor if the current one needed replacing.  Rainwater harvesting could also be adopted where rainwater could be collected from the roof areas for re-use in the grey-water system, reducing direct run-off.

Any business parks that become at risk to fluvial and tidal flooding as a result of climate change would require local defences to be constructed to protect them.  If these defences were not undertaken by the Environment Agency they would then be the responsibility of the owners of the business park of industrial sites affected.  The defences could include solutions such as the heightening of river banks, sheet pile and concrete walls or flow attenuation upstream.

Port Facilities
Sea defences should be assessed for the impacts of increased wave energy due to rising sea levels.  It may be that defences are adequate to see out their design life and consideration should then be given climate change during design and maintenance programs, or else large scale maintenance programs may need to be brought forward to prevent impact to port operations.  The adaptation measures associated with the principal risk of tidal flooding have already been addressed in the flooding section. 

Cranes should be assessed for impacts from any increases in wind speed and consideration should be given to dismantling any obsolete cranes to remove the possibility of risk. 

When upgrading or extending any of the hard standing areas of the port consideration should be given to the need for larger drainage to accommodate increases in rainfall.

Land Management
Livestock farmers should consider the provision of animal shelters and natural shelterbelts such as trees to create shaded areas.  In stream-fed areas, the number of watering troughs may need to be increased and inspections regularly undertaken to ensure that these remain filled. 

As the climate changes, so different breeds that more drought- or heat-tolerant should be considered and there will be an increased need for monitoring and controlling pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Arable farmers should consider harvesting rainwater for re-use for irrigation during dry periods and introducing new crops such as maize and fruits.  Again, there will be an increased need for monitoring and control of pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Foresters will have opportunities to use faster yielding trees due to the warmer climes, which may present direct and knock-on business opportunities.

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| Northumberland | Tyne & Wear | County Durham | Tees Valley |

 

At this sub-regional level it is just as important that consideration is given to the to implementation of Business Continuity Management (BCM), which if implemented correctly will have a marked effect on the impact of a climate change threat to a business of any size.  UK Resilience states that:

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards……..Good BCM helps organisations identify their key products and services and the threats to these.”

For greater information on BCM and how to apply I to a business please see the Regional Adaptation page of this section.

Business Parks and Industrial Estates
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.

Port Facilities
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.  Adaptation measures that apply to business parks and industrial estates would also be applicable to the warehousing and hard standing areas common at many ports. 

Land Management
Adaptation measures that could be implemented to reduce the impact of the changing climate are:

Livestock Farming:

• Provision of animal shelters and natural shelterbelts such as trees;
• Increase in numbers of watering troughs and ensure that these remain filled;
• Improved ventilation when housing and transporting livestock;
• Farm different breeds that more drought- or heat-tolerant;
• Collect and re-use rainwater;
• Increase monitoring and control of pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Arable Farming:

• Harvest rainwater for irrigation use in dry periods;
• Introduce new crops such as maize and fruits;
• Increase monitoring and control of pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Forestry:

• Opportunities will exist to use faster yielding southern-stock trees;
• Invasive species, pests and fungal disease will need to be monitored and more frequently controlled.

 

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At this sub-regional level it is just as important that consideration is given to the to implementation of Business Continuity Management (BCM), which if implemented correctly will have a marked effect on the impact of a climate change threat to a business of any size.  UK Resilience states that:

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards……..Good BCM helps organisations identify their key products and services and the threats to these.”

For greater information on BCM and how to apply I to a business please see the Regional Adaptation page of this section.

Business Parks and Industrial Estates
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.

Port Facilities
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.  Adaptation measures that apply to business parks and industrial estates would also be applicable to the warehousing and hard standing areas common at many ports. 

 

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At this sub-regional level it is just as important that consideration is given to the to implementation of Business Continuity Management (BCM), which if implemented correctly will have a marked effect on the impact of a climate change threat to a business of any size.  UK Resilience states that:

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards……..Good BCM helps organisations identify their key products and services and the threats to these.”

For greater information on BCM and how to apply I to a business please see the Regional Adaptation page of this section.

Business Parks and Industrial Estates
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.

Port Facilities
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.  Adaptation measures that apply to business parks and industrial estates would also be applicable to the warehousing and hard standing areas common at many ports. 

Land Management
Adaptation measures that could be implemented to reduce the impact of the changing climate are:

Livestock Farming:

• Provision of animal shelters and natural shelterbelts such as trees;
• Increase in numbers of watering troughs and ensure that these remain filled;
• Improved ventilation when housing and transporting livestock;
• Farm different breeds that more drought- or heat-tolerant;
• Collect and re-use rainwater;
• Increase monitoring and control of pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Arable Farming:

• Harvest rainwater for irrigation use in dry periods;
• Introduce new crops such as maize and fruits;
• Increase monitoring and control of pests, diseases and weed invasions.

Forestry:

• Opportunities will exist to use faster yielding southern-stock trees;
• Invasive species, pests and fungal disease will need to be monitored and more frequently controlled.

 

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At this sub-regional level it is just as important that consideration is given to the to implementation of Business Continuity Management (BCM), which if implemented correctly will have a marked effect on the impact of a climate change threat to a business of any size.  UK Resilience states that:

“Business continuity management (BCM) is a process that helps manage risks to the smooth running of an organisation or delivery of a service, ensuring continuity of critical functions in the event of a disruption, and effective recovery afterwards……..Good BCM helps organisations identify their key products and services and the threats to these.”

For greater information on BCM and how to apply I to a business please see the Regional Adaptation page of this section.

Business Parks and Industrial Estates
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.

Additional Key Sub-Regional Businesses
Individual industries and businesses should evaluate their businesses and processes in light of the predicted climate changes and undertake suitable scale impact assessments to quantify any adaptations. 

Port Facilities
The adaptation techniques that could be employed to counteract impacts to business parks and industrial estates are the same as those that apply to at a regional level of assessment.  Adaptation measures that apply to business parks and industrial estates would also be applicable to the warehousing and hard standing areas common at many ports. 

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