Some disaster plans and risk registers already exist for the key sites within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, but it is essential that all sites are prepared. To ensure a co-ordinated response to disasters, access to those plans needs to be made available to the DVMWHS Coordination Team.

For mill sites and other structures on or close to the banks of the River Derwent, flooding is likely to prove an increasing threat, both in terms of frequency and scale, so it is vital such plans prepare for possible severe flooding incidents.

Within the wider consideration of risk, recent work on Climate Change and embodied pollutants within silts contained above weirs is featured in the Historic England report Future Climate and Environmental Change Within the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site, which can be accessed at https://research.historicengland.org.uk/Report.aspx?i=15750