8. Identify the longlist of options and then reduce options to a shortlist

This section describes how to develop a longlist of options for your FCERM project. It then explains how to reduce this to a shortlist of options that meet the appraisal need, clearly define the options and consider constraints and opportunities.

Keep your options appraisal activity proportionate

When you develop your list of options you should keep your number of options and level of detail appropriate to your type of appraisal and next decision point.

Type of appraisal

You may only need to consider a limited range of options for some project types. For other types you may be able to use sponsor documents to provide details. Both of these let you significantly shorten the necessary time and effort.

Next decision point

You need less detailed information if you’re appraising at early feasibility stages. You will need more detail at outline business case (OBC) stage to allow options evaluation, comparison and a robust option choice. At full business case (FBC) stage you need enough detail to make sure you can achieve your recommendations.

Understand measures and options in FCERM appraisal

A measure is an intervention that modifies flooding or erosion risk. It does this by changing the frequency, extent, and consequences of flooding or coastal erosion and reducing the vulnerability of those exposed.

An option is a package of measures that together provide community resilience to flooding and coastal erosion over the life of the option.

For example, a package of measures could consist of:

  • upland natural flood management (NFM) to slow the flow of water to a town
  • new woodland where trees will offset higher river flows due to climate change
  • smaller flood walls in the town which are easier to integrate because of the NFM and the future woodland
  • improved local flood warnings and uptake to reduce the consequence of a flood event
  • property level resilience for properties not benefiting from the flood walls, supported by the flood warnings
  • emergency response, where local responders update their plans to provide support if flood events exceed local defences
  • a post flood recovery centre run by local partners and the community

You can package measures together to provide different levels of FCERM at different scales of investment and contribute towards project objectives in varying amounts.

Generic options in FCERM appraisal

There are 7 generic options used in FCERM appraisals:

  1. do-nothing to manage flood/erosion risks – this assumes you no longer provide FCERM interventions and is a baseline against which other options are considered
  2. legal obligations on FCERM – provides only those actions needed to meet a legal or contractual obligation
  3. do-minimum to manage flood/erosion risks – the least that would be done for FCERM, which must be realistic and reflects typical action during flood or erosion incidents
  4. sustain current SOS – allows the continuation of the current levels of service provided by FCERM
  5. options with higher standards of service than sustain
  6. options between sustain and do-minimum
  7. options to carry out the agreed FCERM strategy – this option will be defined for you in the approved strategy you’re implementing

Options needed for your project type

Your choice of generic options depends on your project type.

The table shows which ones you should use:

Generic options Simple or complex change Strategy supported Sustain SOS Legal obligation
Do nothing for FCERM Required Required Indicative only Indicative only
Legal obligation If needed If needed Not needed Required
Do minimum FCERM Required Not needed Not needed Not needed
Sustain current SOS Required Not needed Required Not needed
Options with Higher SOS Required Not needed Not needed Not needed
Standards between sustain and do minimum Required Not needed Not needed Not needed
Carry out agreed strategy Not needed Required Not needed Not needed

You may be able simplify the generic list for your project, for example:

  • the SOS currently provided may be same as do-minimum
  • you may not need to explore options above sustain SOS if the current FCERM is not affordable and the new options are likely to have notably higher costs

All appraisals

You should explore a wide range of measures and options but your short list must only contain options that meet your CSFs, FCERM objectives and contribute towards your opportunity objectives.

You will need to create options for your project that explore different ways of achieving the FCERM needs of the generic options for your project type.

Involve your stakeholders and local partners

You must involve stakeholders when you develop options so that you consider local knowledge, needs, constraints and aspirations. Involving potential contributors and funding partners will help manage expectations and keep ambitions realistic.

You should use a workshop style arrangement to involve stakeholders in the options process. You may need to hold more than one workshop for larger projects or those with added complexity. This also allows time to find out more information to support the process and make decisions.

The long to short list options process

You should think as broadly as possible when you first develop ideas that could work for your project. These will form your long list of options.

You should consider:

  • new and innovative ideas
  • opportunities to work with others
  • ways to adapt or modernise existing approaches

Once you have done this you should remove ideas that will not work and refine the ones that will. This will provide you with a shortlist of options.

Identifying your options will often be a faster process if you’re at an early stage of your project. It will also be quicker if you have identified your project type as a legal obligation, sustain SOS or can implement a strategy. This is because the outcomes of these are more specific and there is a lot of information in the sponsor documents.

The information you need to develop your options will be limited at the beginning of the process. This is same for any project type.

The total number of options will reduce as you refine them but the amount of information you need for each option will increase. This will make sure that your resulting shortlist is robust and justified. You must keep a record of your options process and all the decisions you make.

The information you gathered from section 5 and section 6 will be essential for your options process.

Steps in the process

You should follow 4 steps to move from a long to a shortlist of options:

  1. identify your longlist of measures – the longer and more innovative this is the better, because you will later reject ones which will not work for your project
  2. refine your longlist of viable options by creating packages of measures that will plausibly achieve your project objectives and CSFs – you should use local and expert local knowledge to assess the potential of your options
  3. reduce your longlist to a shortlist of viable options – you should gather more information and use this to reject options that will not work and refine those remaining against your objectives and CSFs
  4. finalise an agreed shortlist of options with partners by further refining and optimising until your shortlist meets all your CSFs and project objectives - you must include one or more options that align to each of the generic options needed for your type of project

You must update your appraisal summary table (AST) with the full information on all options in your short list.

Share the agreed shortlist

You should have involved stakeholder representatives and local partners during your options process. You should use your SEP to share the shortlist outcome with others. This will help you manage their expectations and provide reassurance to your project before proceeding.

Inputs to identify, develop and shortlist options

To identify your long list of options and create a short list you will need to use the outputs from your work in:

You will also need to develop new information to support your options process. This will include high level estimates of costs and benefits and how much FCERM GIA may be available. See section 9 and section 10 of this manual and the partnership funding arrangements to help you do this.

You should include anyone involved in the environmental assessment process at this stage of the appraisal.

They can contribute by:

  • screening out environmentally unacceptable options
  • identifying conflicts with environmental legislation
  • suggesting options that are less damaging
  • suggesting changes that may improve their environmental performance
  • identifying opportunities to work with other schemes
  • providing alternative sources of funding

Checkpoints to identify, develop and shortlist options

You should assess whether it is worth continuing with the appraisal in its current form by checking whether:

  • legal constraints mean that there are no viable options – if so:
  • stop and investigate the reason
  • check that you’ve scoped all options as widely as possible
  • consider whether it is possible to affect or withdraw the legal issue
  • your ‘do-something’ options align with the National FCERM Strategy - if not, you should review your project objectives and resolve any conflicts
  • your available options wholly or partly meet some or all the objectives - if not
  • check that you’ve examined all solutions
  • engage further with stakeholders to manage their expectations
  • consider whether that the appraisal option will not meet all the objectives
  • you have considered a wide portfolio of options to meet the objectives.
  • you have identified the best environmental option - consider whether you have you considered issues of sustainability and adaptability and how to work with natural processes

Outputs to identify, develop and shortlist options

This step in the appraisal process is complete when you’ve:

  • identified a wide range of measures and options
  • removed any infeasible or impractical options
  • developed an agreed shortlist of options
  • recorded your justification for progressing with or rejecting options
  • engaged all relevant stakeholders in the right way, so they understand and accept the option you’ve chosen

Read the full technical guidance

If you need to understand the full technical content you should see section 8 – identify, develop and shortlist options in the FCERM technical guidance.