How do you build community flood resilience?
How do you build community flood resilience?
What is flood resilience?
You will be able to find a range of definitions or explanations of what community flood resilience is in the resources found in our library. The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance understands resilience as “the ability of a system, community, or society to pursue its social, ecological, and economic development and growth objectives, while managing its disaster risk over time in a mutually reinforcing way.”
Can you measure flood resilience?
The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance believes that in order to enhance flood resilience in a community we need properly understand, and measure it. When the Alliance was created back in 2013 there were no validated resilience measurement tools available. So we created our own. The Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) is a framework and tool that helps you measure a community’s resilience to floods and in a participatory fashion design and deliver activities that will increase resilience. Find out more about why it’s important to measure resilience here.
How can you enhance community resilience?
When looking at resilience we consider five different capitals: Human, Social, Physical, Natural, and Financial as well as four properties of a resilient system: Robustness, Redundancy, Resourcefulness, and Rapidity. By using the FRMC we evaluate a specific community’s strengths and weaknesses in these areas and in partnership with the community and other relevant stakeholders take action to develop the areas that will make a difference to community members and the community’s flood resilience.
Because every community is unique there are no interventions or activities which will build resilience in all communities. Once you have an understanding of what capitals or capabilities need strengthening you can use the Solutions Finder to identify activities that will help you do so. We have guidance for everything from flood resilient infrastructure like wells or grain storage, to adaptive farming practices like floating gardens, and tools for making sure your work is inclusive.
You can also find examples of how community flood resilience is being built across the globe on our Blog. Why not get in touch if you have stories and knowledge that can inspire others?
Relevant resources
This document provides detail on the conceptual framework behind the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC) and explains how it is applie
This guidance document is meant to support practitioners working in disaster prone contexts to develop and implement more effective integrated resilie
Flood risk is increasing worldwide and there is a growing need to better understand the co-benefits of investments in disaster resilience. Utilizing
The handbook provides guidance to inform the development of flood emergency plans by outlining a series of national principles and processes. Key cons
