COMMUNITY RESILIENCE TO EXTREME WEATHER EVENTS THROUGH IMPROVED LOCAL DECISION MAKING

In the UK extreme weather events (EWEs) are increasing in frequency and severity. The ability of local communities to cope with the immediate to long term impacts and recover from the aftermath is critical to their prosperity. Whilst the immediate responsibility for protection of life resides with the emergency services, and the restoration of basic services with the utilities, the short to medium term success of the local community resides with the individuals, businesses (predominately small and medium sized enterprises / SMEs) and local policy makers that constitute the community. Whilst each of these groups will be affected in different ways (depending on the type of EWE), it is their combined actions that will determine the resilience of the community. Policy makers must be aware of the expectations of households and SMEs and develop policy instruments that support these groups in ways that are sympathetic to their needs and aspirations; householders and local business must be aware of their exposure to the effects of EWEs and of the sources and level of assistance that they can expect from local agencies; SMEs must be prepared for the disruption that an EWE can bring and have contingency plans in place to help their immediate recovery (and ensure that they are able to support households in their recovery) and to secure their long term survival. The challenges for this project are to understand how each group of decision makers is affected by and respond to EWEs, and to identify the synergies and conflicts between their decisions that affect community resilience. The aim of the research is to develop an integrated decision making framework that supports the individual and collective actions of local policy makers, households and SMEs, in such a way that the actions result in the improved resilience of local communities to EWEs.