Communicating Flood Risk – Flood Engagement Exercise

Flooding in Calderdale

iCASP has launched an exciting project to help Risk Management Authorities (RMAs), their partners and the wider community improve flood risk communication during an incident to help increase the resilience of those at risk.

To facilitate this we have developed a flood engagement exercise for individuals working in flood incident response this includes both RMAs and engaged members of the public, for example, community flood wardens or members of community groups.


Aims of event

1. Support more effective communication during a flood incident by:

  • improving understanding of roles and responsibilities during a flood.
  • increasing understanding of effective messaging to reach the right people at the right time (RMAs, EMPs, people vulnerable to flooding, Hard-to-Reach groups).
  • improve ways of communicating technical aspects of flooding (magnitude & frequency) in a user friendly way

2.  Support effective relationships between (RMAs, EMPs, people vulnerable to flooding, Hard-to-Reach groups)

3. Consider effective ways to engage with hard-to-reach groups.


Exercise Content

This engagement exercise is designed to get people talking about the best ways to communicate before and during a flood​.

You will explore:

The best method of communicating flood risk efficiently

How to clearly convey technical information and concepts such as level of protection and sources of flooding

The most effective language to use in risk communication

Communicating with vulnerable social groups.

It will give you the chance to experience first-hand what is important to others involved in managing flood risk and their different perspective on communication. For example, local authorities, housing agencies, the Environment Agency and utility services. You will gain a better understanding of key communication issues for flood duty officers, asset managers, flood risk managers wardens, councilors, flood wardens, flood action groups, housing managers

Details

Participants will be given a flood scenario set in a fictional town, they will then be taken as a group through a number of tasks focused on key elements of flood risk communications. The learning from these tasks is then consolidated within the exercise during a debrief session so that participants can use their experiences and learnings in their day-to-day roles to improve flood risk communications for all.

**Please note bookings can be made from w/c 24th January 2022**

Cost: FREE


Location: Online via Zoom or at a suitable venue

Duration : 3 hours

To register your interest for your group please email us at icasp@leeds.ac.uk.

Include the following details:

  • Organisation/Group Name
  • Number of participants and corresponding email addresses.
  • Up to three options of available dates which suit your groups availability.

Groups of up to 6 participants can book an exercise, for larger groups, multiple bookings can be made.

iCASP can facilitate the exercise Monday to Friday as a morning session (9:30-12:30) or in the afternoon (1:30-4:30). Bookings are being taken until summer 2022.