Walney Island Resilience and Adaptation Pathways Assessment

Find out about our project to help Walney Island look at their future resilience challenges and how to adapt to them for residents, businesses, communities and other stakeholders. You can also complete our survey to help us develop our assessment.

We're carrying out a Rapid Adaptation Pathways Assessment (RAPA) for Walney Island. This project will help us to better understand how current and future changes affect the island. The evidence base would support:

  • climate change 
  • coastal change and erosion
  • flooding and extreme weather
  • disruption to key services and infrastructure

Our assessment will look at how these changes could affect daily life. This includes:

  • healthcare
  • transport
  • infrastructure 
  • communications
  • essential services 
  • community wellbeing

We will explore how Walney Island can prepare for, respond to, recover from and adapt to changing conditions and future challenges.

The RAPA is an exercise to gather evidence and plan. It does not make decisions about future projects or changes. The assessment will not predetermine future outcomes. 

The purpose of the assessment is to improve understanding of future risks, opportunities and adaptation options. This will help to inform future discussions and decision-making for resilience and adaptation on Walney Island. 

We’re running a survey to gather information from residents, businesses and other stakeholders. This information will help us to develop the RAPA. 

View the survey information and respond online

Why we’re doing a RAPA

Walney Island faces a range of current and future challenges, including:

  • coastal erosion and coastal change 
  • flooding and extreme weather 
  • climate change 
  • dependencies on infrastructure and services 
  • community resilience and preparedness 

As an island community connected to the mainland by a limited number of key transport links, Walney Island has unique characteristics and dependencies. These influence how disruption can affect residents, businesses and services.

The RAPA takes a broader approach than traditional flood risk studies. It will look at physical risks, but also how flooding and other disruptions can affect daily life. This includes access to healthcare, transport, communications, food supplies, and community support.

Adaptation pathways

Adaptation pathways are a way of planning for the future. 

They help identify what actions may be needed now and what choices we may need to make in the future. They also help us stay prepared if risks change over time.

Adaptation pathways help us to understand:

  • what actions may be appropriate now
  • if there are future changes that might require further actions 
  • what options are available to support resilience over time 
  • how decisions can remain flexible as circumstances change 

This approach helps to ensure that future decisions are based on evidence. It means that people can respond to changing risks, challenges and opportunities. 

Who is leading the project

We’re co-ordinating the Walney Island RAPA with support from local communities, partner organisations and stakeholders. 

The project is being led by Simone Parker, who is our Local Resilience Forum Development Officer. The team are responsible for coordinating:

  • coordinating engagement 
  • evidence gathering 
  • development of the assessment 

Have your say about the Walney Island RAPA

We’re running a survey for residents, businesses, community groups and organisations. The survey is for people to share their experiences, concerns and priorities for Walney Island.  

The survey closes on 30 November 2026

It’s an opportunity for you to give us your views on: 

  • community resilience
  • local priorities
  • access to services
  • infrastructure and connectivity
  • future challenges facing Walney Island
  • opportunities to strengthen resilience in the future

Give your feedback for the Walney Island RAPA online

If you want to share views from more than one point of view, you can complete the survey more than once.

For example, you might wish to respond separately as a:

  • resident 
  • business owner or employee
  • community group member 
  • volunteer 
  • representative of an organisation

If you complete the survey more than once, make sure each response matches the person or group you are speaking for.

Privacy and Confidentiality

The Walney Island RAPA Survey is administered by Westmorland and Furness Council.

Survey responses are anonymous unless you choose to contact us separately. Information collected through the survey will be used to support the Walney Island Rapid Adaptation Pathways Assessment (RAPA) and associated evidence gathering activities.

Find further information about how your information is handled within the survey in our Privacy Notice.

What happens next

There will be other opportunities throughout this project to:

  • attend engagement events 
  • join in workshops
  • share local knowledge and experiences 
  • comment on findings as they emerge 

We will use feedback from residents, businesses, community groups and other organisations. This information will help ensure that future discussions and decision-making are informed by local priorities and lived experience.

How to contact us

For more information about the Walney Island RAPA, please contact: 

Simone Parker
Local Resilience Forum Development Officer
Email: walneyisland.rapa@westmorlandandfurness.gov.uk