How Orbit Housing has redefined its flood response with Zurich Municipal
By using Previsico’s real-time flood intelligence, Orbit Housing is strengthening its ability to monitor risk, protect assets, and respond quickly to potential flooding across its housing portfolio.
Overview
Orbit Housing manages a portfolio of 48,000 affordable homes across the Midlands, South East and East of England. In addition, Orbit Housing also develops new homes, constructing around 1,000 homes per year, and the housing association is planning to deliver 7,000 new and upgraded homes by 2030.
The organisation takes a highly proactive approach to managing flood risk across its assets - understanding that effective flood resilience is not just about anticipating rising water levels, but also about having accurate and up-to-date asset data, reliable intelligence and clear ownership of response measures.
Problem
In January 2025, a flood incident at one of Orbit sheltered housing schemes became a pivotal moment. While the site had previously flooded in 2008 and had subsequently been fitted with flood mitigation measures, these defences were not recorded in Orbit’s asset management system. A floodgate and a raised boiler system had been installed years earlier, but knowledge of their existence sat only with one long-serving employee.
When surface water flooding threatened the scheme again, the absence of this information almost led to an unnecessary evacuation of residents.
More critically, it became clear that because these assets were undocumented and therefore would not be part of routine inspection or maintenance programmes. Orbit recognised that it could not proactively manage flood resilience if its own data did not reflect what was physically in place on the ground.
Solution
As part of their proactive flood risk management strategy, Orbit signed up to the Previsico Flood Intel Platform available via Zurich Municipal.
“We use Previsico with some of our other alerts, due to the fact that it looks at surface water flooding” Danny Eason, Business Resilience & Insurance Lead, Orbit Housing
Following the adoption of Previsico, Orbit used it as a springboard to coordinate a project involving estates and environmental teams to identify, map and record all flood defence assets across its stock. This included floodgates, sustainable drainage systems, and attenuation tanks.
These assets are now integrated into Orbit’s GIS and asset management systems, ensuring they are visible, maintainable, and included in cyclical checks.
Benefits
Orbit Housing found the early warnings incredibly helpful within their proactive flood risk strategy. They are particularly interested in the fact that it covers surface water flooding. Continuous re-running of the model provides reassurance that there is something monitoring their risk at all times.
The housing association sees considerable value in how Previsico helps them understand their stock more accurately and identify where the pain points lie.
Further benefits include:
- Teams can take preventative measures to protect buildings, assets, and residents.
- Adopting the solution has helped Orbit prioritise their flood plans, allowing them to stay proactive in the face of flood impacts.
- The housing association has been able to minimise financial losses related to repairs, replacements, and rehousing residents.
- Data insights from Previsico offer a deeper understanding of insurance needs and flood impact likelihood, ensuring adequate coverage where there are gaps.
As our society becomes increasingly urbanised, surface water is emerging as a growing challenge. Working with Previsico has given us the ability not only to identify which assets are at risk, but also to better understand the actions we can take to mitigate flood risk. It supports our strategic planning by providing clearer insight into our exposure, enabling us to take a more proactive approach to managing and reducing risk.
