Led by Mary Dhonau, the Cumbria Flood Resilience Showcase Project focuses on implementing new protective measures that increases a properties resilience to flooding. This will mean that when a flood does reoccur, the damage will not be as devastating – environmentally, economically and socially.
Mary, a community flood specialist, invited professional networks to evaluate buildings in regard to how resistance, resilience and community protection measures could be combined into the design for the refurbishment of the building, in order to increase the overall protection level against future flooding events. The overall aim involved ensuring that when floodwater enters, damage to materials is minimised, and building elements that are damaged can be easily repaired or replaced.
This project involves investing in three properties including a community centre, a Restaurant and a converted barn. Each property was highly damaged in Storm Desmond (2015) and none of the buildings have been able to be reoccupied almost 2 years later.
British Research Establishment (BRE) uses a Property Flood Resilience database, which is a digital tool, used to record and understand measures already implemented and measures that can be included to increase resilience of a property. This tool explores three sections:
- Resistance – involves all possible entry points (E.g. doors and windows)
- Resilience – What can aid recovery for example wall and floor finishing’s.
- Community – Barriers, SUDS (Sustainable urban drainage) and local flood wardens.
The tool enables two scores to be produced one that gives an overall resilience score for the property currently and then one that shows what it could be, once suggested measures have been implemented. The tool is aimed to be used by surveyors or any professional evaluating the properties.
Some of the companies already involved who have completed surveys on each of the buildings include: Cunningham Agency, Trident BC, BRE, Delta Membranes and RAB Consultants. Several other companies are also heavily involved.
A series of videos are being produced outlining the transformation and the journey of these properties from their current condition, to full refurbished and protected properties. These can all be accessed online through the Cumbria Flood Resilient Showcase Project (CFRSP) Youtube Channel.
Following the completion of this project each of the properties will be well equipped to deal with future floods. Furthermore, the recovery time will have reduced, the level of protection will have increased and the potential for any future damage due to flooding will be considerably less.
The summary document for this project is displayed below. This interactive document shows the project partners and their roles in the project.
Please note that the file is shown across two pages wide. For users who would prefer an offline version, the file can also be downloaded as a web-linked PDF here.
Cumbria Emag_digital_BRE