How Incommunities Housing Association used Previsico to mitigate flood risk
Incommunities previously experienced flood impacts which resulted in challenges to ensure its tenants were protected and supported. After assessing the options, the housing association adopted Previsico’s solution to help mitigate flood risks.
- £1.3mApprox cost of property damage mitigated across Incommunities portfolio
- 1 in 5Properties identified as at risk due to surface water flooding
The problem
In the UK, flood risk is set to increase fivefold by 2050 - largely due to climate change challenges and the rise in urban development.
Surface water flooding caused by overwhelmed urban drainage systems during rainfall is a key part of the problem – in fact, it poses a greater risk than coastal or river flooding.
For all homes and business’ this risk is largely unmonitored and causes many problems when it impacts. Housing associations, for example, are not only at risk in terms of repairing damage, but also when it comes to finding suitable alternative accommodation for their tenants.
Incommunties is a social and affordable housing association based in Yorkshire. Managing more than 22,600 homes across the Bradford, Kirklees, Wakefield, and Sheffield area, Incommunites provides a diverse range of affordable homes and services to meet the needs of local people.
Incommunities previously experienced flood impacts, related to heavy rainfall events, which resulted in challenges to ensure its tenants were protected and supported. After assessing the options, the housing association adopted Previsico’s solution to help mitigate flood risks.
The solution
When it came to delivering an effective solution to mitigate costly risks involved with flooding, the team at Incommunities were able to improve and adapt their mitigation solution by working with Previsico.
The unique Previsico solution goes beyond existing flood models, using surface rainfall data to outline risk areas. This analysis of surface water ensures a greater level of accuracy when it comes to forecasting and providing alerts.
Not long after the Incommunities team adopted the Previsico solution, they were warned of potential risks via a series of alerts during June 2024. The housing association experienced a heavy downpour within an hour of receiving the warnings. The team at Incommunities were impressed with the level of accuracy, especially considering that rainfall was not expected during that time.
A response team was deployed to one of their sites at Hayworth. The volatility of the downpour led them to consider other areas of housing stock which needed attention and look at flood risk more holistically.
In addition, the Incommunities team realised that their knowledge of some housing stock was limited due to the longevity of that stock. This helped them when it came to risk assessment and management of assets.
Benefits
For Incommunities there were a variety of immediate benefits in adopting Previsico’s solution. The early warnings provided by Previsico offers peace of mind for the team at the housing association. The fact that the forecasting is rerunning every three hours, provides additional reassurance that the risk is being monitored.
We know that flood damage impacts around 1 in 5 homes per year, with an estimated cost of £30,000 per household, so Incommunities were able to mitigate £1.3 million worth of property damage across their portfolio of 22,600 homes.
There was positive sentiment amongst Incommunities tenants, who thanked the housing associating for responding to the heavy downpour and to their tenants’ needs
The housing association was able to identify areas of concern, including a need to take a different approach to mitigating risk on a range of different properties.
The extra data offered from Previsico meant the team at Incommunties were able to take past drainage performance and current rainfall trajectories and deliver effective incident tracking to reduce risk.
Another huge benefit for Incommunities is that the housing association is now able to help to accurately characterise flood impacts and risk areas. This knowledge means they can be laser focussed when it comes to distributing resources and taking the appropriate level of action
Our partnership with Previsico has been invaluable, we had previously experienced flood impacts and now, with the service provided to us from Previsico, we are able to identify and act upon potential risk areas
