EIA

Flood risk management plans (FRMPs) and their updates (FRMPs) are planning documents that set the framework for the implementation of projects aiming to increase flood safety in river basin areas. As these projects may have different effects on the environment, it is necessary to carry out a Strategic Environmental Assessment process before the adoption of the Plans. The forecast document contains an assessment of the impact of the planned actions under the FRMPs and the updated FRMPs on the implementation of strategic environmental protection objectives.

The draft updates of the flood risk management plans in the river basin have been developed as a result of the obligation to develop flood risk management plans and the need to review and update them under Articles 7(1), 8(1) and 14(3) of Directive 2007/60/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2007 on the assessment and management of flood risks (Floods Directive), transposed into Polish law by the Water Law Act (Polish Official Journal of Laws 2020, item 310, as amended). Flood risk management plans and their updates are developed as the last, third step within the second planning cycle of the Floods Directive, following the update of the preliminary flood risk assessment (uPFRA) and the update of the flood hazard maps (uFHM) and flood risk maps (uFRM). The flood risk management plans were prepared taking into account the division of the country into river basin areas and water regions (according to Article 172, paragraph 1 of the Water Law Act), and their integral part are updated flood risk management plans from the sea, including internal sea waters (Article 173, paragraph 3 of the Water Law Act). According to Article 173 (19) of the Water Law Act, flood risk management plans shall be reviewed every 6 years and updated if necessary. Currently, the plans are being updated for the first time. In the first cycle, plans were created for 3 river basin areas: Wisła, Odra and Pregoła, hence the need to perform updates. For the remaining river basin areas: Łaba, Niemen and Dunaj, they are being implemented for the first time. The plans contain concrete measures to protect the population, economy, environment and cultural heritage in the respective river basin areas. They also include a set of non-technical measures, e.g. nationwide or educational, which are recommended to implement.

The strategic documents (uFRMPs and FRMP with the EIA forecasts) under public consultation have been developed within the OPI&E project ‘Review and update of flood risk management plans’, Project No.: POIS.02.01.00-00-0001/19, financed by the Operational Programme Infrastructure and Environment, Priority axis II: Environmental protection including adaptation to climate change, Measure 2.1 Adaptation to climate change, including protection and increase of resilience to natural disasters and environmental monitoring – Task 3 ‘Development of forecasts of environmental impact and conducting strategic environmental assessment for the projects of update of flood risk management plans (uFRMP)’.

Public consultations of the drafts of the forecasts of the impact on the environment of the drafts of the updated flood risk management plans for the Wisła, Odra and Pregoła river basin areas and of the drafts of the flood risk management plans for the Dunaj, Niemen and Łaba river basin areas will be held for 21 days, in accordance with the provisions of Article 39 (1) (4) of the Act of 3 October 2008 on publishing information about the environment and its conservation, public participation in environmental protection and environmental impact assessments (Journal of Laws 2021, item 247 and 784). They are announced by the President of Wody Polskie. The consultations are open, which means that anyone interested can take part in them and has the right to submit comments and requests to the draft forecasts as well as to the draft updates of the flood risk management plans and the draft flood risk management plans.

Public consultation meetings

Due to the prevailing restrictions related to the epidemic situation and the uncertainty of future restrictions during the public consultation period, we have prepared online meetings.