Organisational Operational Response and Strategic Decision Making for Long Term Flood Preparedness in Urban Areas

Flooding presents a significant and growing challenge to the United Kingdom and the wider world. In the UK, the 2000 floods were the worst since 1947 and the 2007 floods resulted in the greatest loss of essential services since World War II. Given that milder, wetter winters and localised extreme weather events are likely to be a growing feature of climate patterns, this threat is likely to grow. In fact, some estimates suggest that by 25 years time annual UK flood damage could stand at £25bn.

The flooding of an organisation's premises causes loss, disruption and distress for staff, clients and owners and also impacts upon the wider economy. To reduce these negative effects, organisations in at-risk areas need to learn how to prepare for such events. Currently, businesses and not-for-profit groups rarely have proper plans in place for ensuring the continuity of their activities. The project will conduct empirical research into the behaviours of organisations, model their interactions with other organisations such as emergency responders, insurers and customers. It will also iteratively develop and test (with end users) a digital communication tool that will provide organisations practical information in an format that engages users in a tailored and active learning process. Drawing on the multidisciplinary skills of researchers from engineering, hydrology, economics, business and the behavioural/social sciences, this innovative approach will develop a model that can give private, public and third-sector organisations the confidence, understanding and information necessary to make their organisations financially, physically and operationally more resilient to flooding.

The beneficial impacts of this research will initially be experienced in the case-study geographical areas. However, the aim of the project is to develop tools that can be adopted anywhere in the UK, so the longer-term benefits would be far more widespread. These impacts would be as follows:

- Owners and managers of SMEs will benefit from the availability of easily accessed, relevant and flexibly-formatted information that can make it easier for them to improve flood-related business continuity.

- Managers, non-executive officers and trustees of not-for-profit organisations in areas of flood risk will benefit from the availability of easily accessed, relevant and flexibly-formatted information that makes it easier for them to improve their ability to deliver services during and after floods.

- Residents of at-risk areas will benefit from the wider availability of public and commercial services during and immediately after flooding, and will therefore suffer less disruption during flooding. This particularly applies to more vulnerable residents (e.g. those with infirmities and families with young children).

- People working in at-risk areas will benefit from losing less working time as a result of floods.

- Emergency response services will experience less demand for emergency support from organisations during floods and will therefore be able to allocate their resources more strategically.

- Businesses and residents in the areas surrounding directly flood-affected areas will experience improved continuity of services and supplies.

- Insurance providers will experience a reduction in claims for damage and loss of business continuity...

- ... and SMEs and other organisations in at-risk areas may then eventually experience lower insurance premiums and/or reduced insurance excess levels.

- Those responsible for the benefit-cost evaluation of proposed flood risk management schemes (e.g. in local authorities, the Environment Agency and in the Environment Agency's framework partners) will benefit from the learning concerning the wider economic impacts of flooding.