We evaluated the results from a suite of the Welsh Government’s community flood risk engagement projects, identified good practices and used these to create a toolkit designed to improve future engagement with communities at risk of flooding in Wales, enhancing resilience and ensuring emergency preparedness.
The Welsh Government identified the need for a suite of community flood risk engagement projects to be reviewed to improve the effectiveness of community engagement techniques and disseminate good practice across Wales.
Good practice was identified and collated to help communities and flood risk management authorities be better prepared and resilient for future extreme weather events. We reviewed each project’s engagement materials, interviewed stakeholders and held focus groups with residents. An evaluation exercise was then carried out to measure how well each scheme raised community awareness and encouraged partnership working.
The output of the project included the provision of a toolkit for use by flood risk management authorities, including sections showing good practice techniques and examples on defining scope of engagement, defining the audience, selecting engagement techniques and evaluating scheme success to ensure best practices are implemented. To simplify the process, we combined social research and in-depth technical knowledge to provide a robust understanding of both the problems being communicated and how best this should be done.