Hannah Domsic
Stantec have been appointed to develop a plan to manage sustainable drainage. Photo taken from Unsplash.

Protect yourself against the risk of flooding

A new project aimed at helping home and business owners across Yorkshire to make their properties more resilient to flooding has launched a website where people can access a wealth of information and advice.

Yorkshire Flood Resilience is one of three Flood Resilience Community Pathfinder Projects nationally that have been funded by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Its aim is to raise awareness of property flood resilience measures, which is a term used to describe measures that reduce the risk of flood damage to properties, speed up recovery and enable people to move back into properties more quickly after flooding.

The measures are installed in homes or businesses to make them less vulnerable to flooding. Measures include preventing, delaying or limiting the amount of water entering the property to give people more time to move their belongings above ground level, and move families and pets to safety. Others examples include materials, products and construction techniques to adapt the inside of the property to minimise the damage caused if floodwater does enter, an approach that reduce the likelihood of permanent damage to homes or businesses, and speed up recovery after a flood.

Yorkshire Flood Resilience Project Manager Steve Wragg said: “Communities across Yorkshire face a variety of different flood risks, but many home and business owners don’t realise that there are steps they can take themselves to make their property more resilient to flooding. Property flood resilience solutions are bespoke to each property and there are plenty of expert providers out there who will work with property owners to identify the most appropriate measures for the type of flooding they face.”

He added: “Our new website is a valuable resource for people to who want to learn more about property flood resilience and its benefits. We want people to be aware that it is possible to protect yourself and your family, and your home or business, against the stress, worry, disruption and cost of flooding. Our goal is to help communities here in Yorkshire understand how to do just that.”

The new yorkshirefloodresilience.co.uk website explains how property flood resilience measures work and shows people what they look like. It also features case studies and videos about home and business owners who have installed property flood resilience measures, as well as articles and blogs contributed by leading experts on flood resilience, links to useful websites and resources and much more besides.

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