Floods affect more people globally than any other type of natural hazard. This is only going to get worse with increases in population, urbanisation, and economic development in hazard prone areas, coupled with increasing frequency an intensity of extreme weather events resulting from climate change. Increasing pre-event investment in flood resilience will reduce the losses and damages caused by floods.
Decisions that affect flood risk and resilience are often made at the global and national levels. Yet the impacts of floods are felt most immediately by communities. The community level is an effective entry point for resilience action because communities often know best how and where to focus activities for impact. Working with communities can demonstrate tangible impacts on peoples’ lives and develop good practices to shape policy at higher levels. Operating in over 300 communities worldwide, the Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance addresses flood risks in some of the world’s most flood prone areas. The selection of these communities is strategically based on their specific flood risks, vulnerability levels, and the willingness of both community members and local authorities to engage in meaningful collaborations aimed at enhancing resilience.
To be resilient a community, system, or society must be able to continue on their development and growth path while managing disaster risk over time. This means investments should reduce risk or deliver resilience in addition to development.
One of the best ways to influence policy and spending is through evidence-based flood resilience. Yet when the program started, it was realized there were no internationally validated methods for measuring disaster resilience. Consequently, the starting point was the development of the Flood Resilience Measurement for Communities (FRMC), a flood resilience measurement framework and tool for communities.
Solutions Embedded in the Alliance’s Approach
The FRMC, developed by the Alliance, stands as a testament to innovation in measuring and enhancing flood resilience at the community level. This tool helps communities identify resilience strengths and gaps and guides the development of effective resilience strategies. The tool is first applied to measure resilience in the communities to identify resilience gaps and strengths, and then to co-generate flood resilience approaches and solutions with local stakeholders. More broadly, by measuring resilience, it contributes the evidence needed to increase social, political, and financial investments in flood resilience.
Additionally, the Post Event Review Capability (PERC) methodology enables the Alliance to conduct independent assessments of major flood events, providing insights into why certain hazards escalate into disasters and identifying opportunities for resilience building.
About the Flood Resilience Portals
The Flood Resilience Portals are online spaces dedicated to sharing practical knowledge about building community flood resilience. They are aimed at people who are living and working in flood prone areas, or for the benefit of those who do, including: local government, development NGOs, community-based organisations (and community members), researches, and investors or donors supporting the development of flood resilience measures. Users can engage as a community of practice by sharing resources, asking questions, and interacting through social media channels and regular newsletters.
There are currently five Flood Resilience Portals: four local portals in national or regional languages, specifically curated for those building flood resilience in Latin America, Nepal, Bangladesh, and West Africa, and a global Englishlanguage portal serving as a global knowledge platform on flood resilience.
Achievements and Impact
The Alliance’s Flood Resilience program was the recipient of the 2014 UN Lighthouse Award and also earned the Outstanding Achievement Award from the 2019 National Hurricane Conference in the U.S. for its work to develop and implement its Post Event Review Capability approach. The program also received the National Civil Protection Award by the President of Mexico in September 2019. As of the end of 2023, community programs and advocacy have positively impacted 3.14 million people and influenced USD 1.26 billion in funding towards flood resilience.
