A framework for organisational operational response and strategic decision making for long term flood preparedness in urban areas

Abstract

Recent years have seen flooding emerge as a significant risk facing United Kingdom (UK) businesses. This paper presents an overview of a framework aimed at improving such organisations response to and preparedness for floods in urban areas, reducing the disruption and economic loss associated with flooding, and strengthening the flood resilience of the wider economy and society. To achieve these aims an understanding will be gained of business continuity processes and how private and public sector organisations behave and interact in the immediate aftermath of floods. Based on this understanding, agent based modelling and simulation will be used to identify factors which influence organisations' behaviours to flood response and preparedness, and thus determine ways of improving business continuity. Economic analyses will establish the local impacts of flooding in a range of UK urban areas and the cascading effects to the wider economy. Iterations of agent based simulations will enable analyses of how changes in behaviour could influence these impacts and better enable organisational operational response and inform strategic decision making for long term flood preparedness. Thus, practical guidance will be developed to inform organisations how to better adapt to flood risk through more effective business continuity planning, thereby increasing flood resilience.

Agent-based modeling and simulation to assess flood preparedness and recovery of manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises

“…Through modeling and simulation, this research aims to: The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a brief overview of the modeling and simulation framework which forms part of the SESAME flood risk management project aimed at informing organizational resilience (Coates et al, 2013). Following this, Section 3 presents the framework's flood modeling and simulation component in the context of a case study related to the severe flooding in 2007 of Sheffield's Lower Don Valley in the UK.…”

An Investigation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises’ Flood Preparation and Insurance Coverage Using Agent-Based Modelling

“…In contrast, SMEs with basic insurance cover will only receive the latter. As part of the SESAME project [29], according to interviews undertaken with SMEs having experienced flooding, some of these businesses chose to contact their insurer whereas others did not. The reason for not doing so was to avoid a potential increase in their future insurance premium.…”

SESAME: Exploring small businesses’ behaviour to enhance resilience to flooding

“…The UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council has funded three major projects, including the SESAME project [5], focussing on the research of innovative solutions to flood risk management. This paper provides an overview of the SESAME project ZKLFK LV DLPHG DW LQIOXHQFLQJ WKH EHKDYLRXUV RI EXVLQHVVHV IDFHG ZLWK IORRGLQJ DQG IORRG ULVN.…”