Aberdeenshire Council undertook a number of flood studies from 2005 – 2007 to assess the flood risk to several Aberdeenshire communities. On completion of these the Council agreed in September 2007 a prioritised programme for delivery of flood schemes in Aberdeenshire. Delivery of this programme has been on-going since this time: contractors have been appointed in late 2018 for the Stonehaven Flood Protection [Prevention Scheme and Huntly Flood Protection Scheme was completed in July 2017.
The inception of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009 changed the way in which flood risk is managed. The Act aims to prioritise national spending on flood mitigation using technical analysis to assess flood risk across Scotland. This approach has led to the development of the Flood Risk Management Strategies by SEPA and the Local Flood Risk Management Plans by Aberdeenshire Council.
In 2015, as part of the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009, SEPA’s Flood Risk Management Strategy (FRMS) and the local authorities’ Local Flood Risk Management Plan (LFRMP) identified a number of Potentially Vulnerable Areas (PVA) across Aberdeenshire. Within these PVA’s a number of recommendations were made to undertake site specific detailed flood protection studies (amongst other flood risk management activities) to better inform the current flood risk to these communities and to investigate optio