Building Resilience in Communities (BRIC) project
BRIC is an exciting 2-year, €3.4m project which has secured 70% grant funds from the Interreg France-Channel-England programme. Rather than being an environmental project, it will address the issue of flood management from a social innovation perspective.
Social innovation in this context refers to the ‘co-creation’ of services through collaboration between civil society (individuals, community associations, NGOs etc) and public authorities, with the aim of improving or creating new services that are better targeted and more efficient. The project has an ambition to integrate flood management more closely with community resilience and public health, to create new social enterprise opportunities, and to identify future revenue streams to ensure this work continues.
BRIC will do this through testing new approaches to flood risk management in pilot areas, learning lessons and identifying good practices through the process of doing so.
Each pilot will follow some fundamental principles, adapted to meet local needs:
- Develop systems and procedures that share power and responsibility more equitably between government bodies and civil society
- Involve vulnerable groups (specifically the elderly and those ‘far from the labour market’)
- Improve the life and employment skills of those in vulnerable groups
- Make use of a digital platform provided by one of the BRIC partners, OgoXe, as a communications and training tool
- Trial smart devices from OgoXe (Community Information and alert ‘totem’; personal alert device)
- Co-create flood management services: hazard identification & monitoring; flood policy, physical protection, alerts, recovery.
Outputs
- 8 community flood resilience networks
- 6 skills development schemes for disadvantaged people
- 1 community of practice for community based hazard analysis
- 1 web platform on flood risk management
- 1 resilience toolkit on best practice, tools and guidance
Results
- 70% of participants will be better prepared for flooding
- 30% of participants will evidence improved health and wellbeing
- 30% of participants will report an improvement in trust with local government
- 350m Euros saved in avoided losses and costs from flooding across the project region
Partners in the project bring a range of different skills and experiences:
- Plymouth City Council. Unitary authority incorporating strategic planning, parks and highways maintenance and Lead Local Flood Authority.
- National Flood Forum. Representing communities at risk of flooding, and supporting self help through formation of flood action groups.
- Dorset County Council / Dorset Coastal Forum. Lead Local Flood Authority, and Forum to foster collaboration between coastal stakeholders
- Thames21. A Rivers Trust, covering the lower Thames, in London and its tidal reaches. Working to improve rivers, connect communities , and provide training.
- Cerema (Centre d'études et d'expertise sur les risques, l'environnement, la mobilité et l'aménagement). A national agency providing advice and support regarding a wide range of environmental issues, including flood risk management and urban design.
- L’Oise La Vallee (Agence d'Urbanisme et de Développement de la Vallée de l'Oise). An urban planning agency, providing services on-demand to Communes in Vallee de L’Oise
- CPIE d’Authie (Centre Permanent d’initiatives pour, l’environment d’Authie). An environmental and community education NGO.
- OGoXe. A tech company providing flood warning and environmental monitoring services.