Climate change impacts

In recent years climate change as evidenced in extreme weather and flooding, has severely affected the United Kingdom. In 2013-14 and 2015-16, assets worth billions of pounds were damaged, affecting the lives of thousands of people.

Adaptation activity

In 2016, with the UK government’s support, a roundtable of private sector contractors and the insurance industry resulted in the Property Flood Resilience Action Plan. The plan proposed measures to protect assets (Property Level Resilience, PLR hereinafter) to reduce the cost and psychological burden of repairing residential houses and commercial buildings damaged by flooding. As PLR measures, installing flood-proof doors, flood barriers, perforated-brick covers, and backflow prevention valves are listed as useful measures for flood damage mitigation (see figure). The action plan also introduces recommendations and actions from five working groups to promote PLR measures: support for flood victims; incorporation of resilience into small-scale businesses; development of ‘one-stop shops’ (websites for sharing information on asset resilience measures); development of skills, standards, and certification programs; and communication and behavioral changes.

Outputs / Expected benefits

The Property Level Flood Resilience Roundtable was chaired by the CEO of the Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the Resilient House. Incorporating PLRs to demonstrate the effectiveness of PLR measures, Innovation Park was constructed at the BRE’s experimental site. The results will be presented at the one-stop shop mentioned above.

Fig. Examples of PLR Measures
(Source: National Institute for Land and Infrastructure Management, "Foreign Update on Water Technology Policy [H29-1]")