The newly-elected Government has announced its intention to build 1.5 million new homes in Britain to kickstart the economy but, with climate change posing an ever increasing threat, flood adaptive technology simply has to be part of the plan.
Flooding poses a risk to 5.7 million properties in England alone so, if we want to protect existing properties and open up new, potentially flood-prone areas for housing development so that the Government can achieve its goal of building 1.5 million new homes over the next term of parliament, we need innovative solutions.
Historically, efforts to protect homes and businesses from flooding have largely focused on what are known as ‘resistance’ and ‘resilience’ measures. Flood resistance measures prevent, delay or limit the amount of water entering a property, whereas flood resilience involves the use of materials, products and construction techniques to adapt the inside of a property to minimise the damage caused if floodwater enters.
In stark contrast, flood adaptive technology – such as our groundbreaking Flood Adaptive Platform – has a proven ability to completely evade flood water. In other words, rather than trying to limit the amount of water entering a property or make the clean-up easier after a flood event, our products are capable of not only sensing an impending flood but automatically rising above the water level and staying there until the danger has passed.
An innovative sensor-activated, mechanical jack system designed to automatically elevate above rising water, the Flood Adaptive Platform has already been successfully applied to both mobile homes and modular buildings, highlighting its unique ability to protect properties and their contents from the threat of flooding. However, we believe that its potential is limitless; it can be used to protect a vast range of infrastructure across many different sectors, from utilities and energy to commercial and transportation.
In order to create thriving, climate resilient communities, flood adaptive technology needs to be at the very heart of the planning process. This requires a radical shake-up of planning policy, which simply doesn’t account for innovations within the built environment sector, such as rapidly evolving flood adaptive technology sector.
Current planning frameworks curtail the potential to build on prime Brownfield land and sites constrained by flood risk that are of low ecological value and ripe for development. Unlocking these sites would support regeneration and bring private investment to communities at risk of flooding, enabling them to adapt to our changing climate. This approach would also reduce the need to develop Greenfield sites to meet the Government’s new home building target, an approach that will undoubtedly prove highly controversial among those communities that are affected.
If the Government is to achieve its goal of providing much-needed homes that are both sustainable and resilient to climate change, national and local planning frameworks must reflect the era that we live in and actively encourage the use of adaptive technologies in new housing developments, either through tax incentives, grants or streamlined approval processes for projects.
Thanks to flood adaptive technology, new development is now feasible in areas of high and moderate flood risk. Therefore, the transformative power of this technology must be central to the Government’s house building plans if we’re to develop thriving communities capable of co-existing harmoniously with the natural environment and, at the same time, achieve the objective of triggering a house-building boom that will boost the economy.
At Flood Technology Group, we’re working hard to raise awareness of the potential of flood adaptive technology among key stakeholders and policy-makers to ensure that it becomes a key element of the Government’s plans. After all, a bold new era of housing development in a changing climate demands innovative technology solutions.
