Guide

The Proactive Flood Risk Manager

A practical guide to shifting from reacting to flooding, to anticipating it.

Executive summary

Flood risk management is still reactive. It doesn't have to be.

Over six million properties in England are at risk of flooding from rivers, seas and surface water, and the Environment Agency has recorded a 43% increase in properties at risk from surface water alone since its last assessment. Yet Previsico's own State of Flood Resilience research found only 29.76% of organisations have a flood action plan in place. This guide sets out a four-step process for closing that gap: understand your risk, invest in resilience measures, build a flood action plan, and use an early alert system.

Why a proactive approach matters now.

6M+
Properties at risk of flooding in England

From rivers, the sea and surface water combined.

43%
Rise in surface-water-at-risk properties

Environment Agency assessment, since the prior review.

29.76%
Of organisations have a flood action plan

Previsico's State of Flood Resilience research.

70%
Of flood impacts can be mitigated

With a combination of alerts, a plan and resilience measures.

Case study

36 hours' notice saved a rail construction site millions.

At the Balfour Beatty VINCI HS2 River Blythe Viaduct site, real-time flood alerts integrated with live sensor monitoring gave the team 36 hours' notice ahead of the July 2024 storms. That lead time was enough to relocate plant equipment and mobilise staff, saving millions of pounds in critical infrastructure and avoiding costly site downtime.

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Get the complete Proactive Flood Risk Manager guide: the four-step process, building a flood action plan, and further case studies, as a PDF.

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