The Handbook

Registered users can access the Handbook and Data here or by clicking the cover on the left. (you must log in first).

What is the Multi-Coloured Handbook (MCH)?

The Handbook is intended to be a stand-alone “Step-by-Step” guide to assessing the benefits of flood and coastal erosion risk management. When put together with the knowledge of the costs of the plans and schemes required, the user can assess the relationship between the benefits and costs of investment decisions. This comparison should enable the users to identify those risk management plans and schemes which maximise the economic return to England and Wales, and therefore, represent “best value for money” by being economically efficient.

What does it contain?

Methods for estimating damage to residential and non-residential property (NRP) [view sample]
Updated residential and non-residential depth/damage data (provided in Excel and flat file formats), including curves for saltwater flooding and wave damage [view sample]
Vehicle damages and evacuation costs
Property-level protection measures and flood-warning information
Methods for estimating direct and indirect flood losses to schools, hospitals, utilities, and transportation networks [view sample]
Revised data for agricultural losses and recreational benefits
Updated database and the Handbook to 2024 prices using an appropriate index (CPI, GDP deflator)

2024-25 revisions and additions:

Chapter 9

A major update to Chapter 9 – Appraisal of Flood Risk Managament for Agriculture has been undertaken:

Revisions to the text on policy and updating of tables to 2024 values;
The production of supporting read off tables consistent with other sectoral treatment of asset depth /damage estimation (and production losses);
Asset damage and production losses for flooding on agricultural land (£/ha) by:
- Land use type/farm type;
- ALC grade;
- Drainage classes (groundwater);
- Seasonal distribution of flood impact;
- Salinity;
- Duration/depth;
Update to the data used to estimate the contents of Table 9.5 (Estimated Financial and Economic Gross Margins and Net Margins for wheat and selected farm types in England), based on Defra 5-year time series results from the annual farm business management surveys, GDP adjusted. These estimates feed into the data provided in Tables 9.7 and 9.8 within the Chapter.

Chapter 5

Table 5.4 (Business floor space: rateable value per m² of floor space) has been amended to reflect the new latest published data as the previous dataset found here https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-floorspace-rateable-value-per-square-metre-summary-by-region-and-sector has been removed from publication.

Additional resources:

A series of tasters, including a local benefits/financial version of Handbook Chapter 5: Non-Residential Properties
An example for calculating average annual damages to agriculture
A guidance document on identifying and calculating National Receptor Dataset (NRD) code “9” properties in benefit appraisals
An Ex-Post Evaluation of Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management projects
Archive of Project Appraisal Reports from the Environment Agency
A comprehensive bibliography of studies relating to flood and coastal erosion risk management
We provide the MCM data in flat file format (.csv) and as Excel spreadsheets (.xlsx). We believe that the former will help to link the MCM data more easily and efficiently into project appraisal software. They are available in the Chapter 4 and 5 sections of the website under additional resources

The Handbook aims to provide users with:

Easy access to the techniques and information needed to undertake evaluations of the benefits for most straightforward risk management projects (probably 75% to 85% of all cases)
A greater opportunity to align the scale of the appraisal effort with the scale and scope of the decisions required
Techniques that fully support sustainable development principles

Importantly, the Handbook provides approaches to implement the policies set out in the HM Treasury ‘Green Book’ and complements the Flood and Coastal Erosion Management Appraisal Guidance (FCERM-AG), first published by the Environment Agency in September 2021. It also complements Defra’s Making Space for Water principles and the Environment Agency’s increasing use of Multi-Criteria Analysis, as set out in its FCERM-AG advice. The MCM website also includes a local benefits/financial version of the Handbook to support the implementation of the Partnership Funding approach.

‘The Handbook’ as an online resource

Taking user feedback on-board, the Multi-Coloured Handbook is now available online and replaces the printed 2010 publication. The advantages of having the handbook as an online resource are:

Users can access the information from any computer, tablet or smart phone using their unique log in details once registered
Users can navigate directly to the relevant chapter and data without having to scroll through the whole document
The option to download the full PDF document and all the data (.pdf, .xlxs and .csv) as required
Users will have access to the latest data

The Handbook and the Manual

The Handbook is intended to be a straight-forward and up-to-date resource which will allow the user to carry out economic appraisal with minimum effort for the majority of flood and coastal erosion risk management schemes to be assessed. However, assessments are not always straightforward and therefore the Handbook is complemented by a much more extensive Manual, ‘Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management – A Manual for Economic Appraisal’, otherwise referred to as ‘The Multi-Coloured Manual’. This 2013 Manual replaced the 2005 version and provided more detail on the methodologies implemented in the Handbook. NB: Metholodologies in the Handbook are updated as new information becomes available and so may supersede those in the 2013 Manual.