Flood Narratives

Project Name: Flood Narratives

Funding: ESRC 

Description: In November 2016, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) recommended that; 'Flood risk agencies must find clearer ways of explaining flood risk, to spur both householders and businesses to prepare effectively for floods.' Flood Narratives will address this knowledge gap by communicating the meaning of flood risk to audiences through a spatially coherent mixed media, 3D digital models, soundscapes and visual aids. The central idea is not only to increase a community’s understanding of risk, but also allow them to experience and perceive an alternative narrative, one in which they can live with floods, mitigate the impacts and recover from them quickly. This process will also help to address the denial and scepticism that pervades in many communities at risk of flooding. The project is being run by Ed Barsley and conducted as a collaboration between the University of Cambridge, The Environmental Design Studio, Public Health England and The Environment Agency. It aims to build on a number the tools for the communication of flood risk developed in the 'Retrofitting Resilience' Study. These helped to consider the spatial and temporal impacts of past flood events and explore the potential consequences of future flood hazards. To date the Flood Narratives Toolkit includes:

Moment Cards (Hazard, Action/Inaction & Consequence), Moment Maps, Themed Flipbooks (e.g Evacuation), The Risk Roulette Wheel & The Flood Consequence Kit

On the 18th October a community engagement workshop was run in Great Yarmouth (UK) to test the toolkit. The findings of the study are to be presented at Flood and Coast 2018.

Website: www.floodnarratives.com

Twitter: @floodnarratives