Improving the flood resilience of commercial buildings through property flood resilience measures

The impacts of flooding on businesses include financial damages, business interruption, breakdown of supplies and ultimately business failure. While some commercial properties have developed a level of resilience through taking steps to protect and adapt their premises, the majority are vulnerable to these impacts and lack any level of resilience to flooding. The concept of property flood resilience (PFR) involves the application of a range of measures that can be applied to a property to make people and their property less vulnerable to the impacts of flooding. While this approach has been the subject of much research, leading to an acceptance of this approach in UK flood risk policy and strategy, there has been a dearth of research on the use of PFR for commercial properties. The aim of this research is to explore the application of PFR to commercial properties, and to develop insights into their current usage as well as the potential application in the future. This research draws on a critical examination of the existing literature to reveal the full extent of the impacts of flooding on commercial properties. These impacts are classified as direct/indirect and tangible/intangible impacts, while mitigation measures are found to consist of a hierarchy based on avoidance, resistance, reliance and reparability. Further research is recommended on how to improve the flood resilience of commercial properties through property level measures.