A framework for organisational operational response and strategic decision making for long term flood preparedness in urban areas

Abstract

Recent years have seen flooding emerge as a significant risk facing United Kingdom (UK) businesses. This paper presents an overview of a framework aimed at improving such organisations response to and preparedness for floods in urban areas, reducing the disruption and economic loss associated with flooding, and strengthening the flood resilience of the wider economy and society. To achieve these aims an understanding will be gained of business continuity processes and how private and public sector organisations behave and interact in the immediate aftermath of floods. Based on this understanding, agent based modelling and simulation will be used to identify factors which influence organisations’ behaviours to flood response and preparedness, and thus determine ways of improving business continuity. Economic analyses will establish the local impacts of flooding in a range of UK urban areas and the cascading effects to the wider economy. Iterations of agent based simulations will enable analyses of how changes in behaviour could influence these impacts and better enable organisational operational response and inform strategic decision making for long term flood preparedness. Thus, practical guidance will be developed to inform organisations how to better adapt to flood risk through more effective business continuity planning, thereby increasing flood resilience.