Here at AEM, we’re proud to lend our expertise to communities, businesses, and governments around the world who are looking to tackle the growing challenges of severe weather, flooding, and wildfires head on. Some of the most frequently asked questions we get from clients early in our relationship are, “What is your vision for flood readiness?” and “How would our community look, act, and react with regard to floods if you transformed us?”
As we’ve consolidated our portfolio of brands over the last few years, that vision has significantly evolved, and we decided it’s time to share it with the world. The key elements are a community where everybody:
- Understands the scope of flood risk in their community
- Is protected by a strong flood early warning system
- Can rely on local leaders to coordinate a timely response
Why a foundation of flood risk knowledge is so important
You can’t fight an enemy you don’t understand, and you can’t solve a challenge that you don’t know intimately. In short, that’s why flood risk knowledge is important. With floodplains growing around the world and increasingly placing homes, businesses, and infrastructure in harm’s way, communities need to increase their understanding of specific local flood risks so they can respond appropriately.
For the public safety and emergency response professionals who provide the frontline response during a flood event, understanding underlying risks can be the difference between protecting people from environmental risks and actively putting them in harm’s way.
At the same time, one classic mistake that we’d like to see corrected is the way weather and flood resilience are treated as government issues and responsibilities. Our vision involves spreading awareness and knowledge throughout the community so that as many individual stakeholders as possible are invested in the shared challenge of flood resilience.
To learn more about flood risk knowledge, be sure to watch the videos on our Flood Vision Page:
For many people around the world, adapting to the new realities of flood risk might mean changes to their property, lifestyle, or even permanent relocation. That’s why it’s essential to increase flood risk knowledge at the public level. When citizens have an appropriate understanding of what’s at stake and how a flood could affect them and their families directly, they’re far more likely to support resilience-minded local leaders and comply with initiatives.
Similarly, when businesses understand a flood’s potential to seriously disrupt their operations or impact their workforce, they’re more inclined to come to the table and participate in the effort to build resilience. With better public buy-in, it’s also much easier to rally financial support behind the larger weather and climate initiatives that will protect communities into the future.
Why flood early warning systems are essential
Flood early warning systems (FEWS) provide the data gathering and alerting framework that’s required to turn everybody’s flood risk knowledge into action when a heavy storm approaches. That’s why AEM’s flood readiness vision is aligned with the United Nations’ Early Warnings for All initiative, with the goal of protecting all global citizens from the threat of floods by the end of 2027.
Designing a robust warning system requires bringing together a variety of software, technologies, and planning expertise. Communities need great forecasts that help them understand how regional and even global weather systems will translate to specific impacts in their area – and they need to be able to rely on that data to make decisions about preparation, response staging, and even potential evacuation.
To see how we approach building a flood early warning system, be sure to visit the Vision Page to learn more:
As storms approach the area, sensors in the field report rainfall and water levels at key locations to create a real-time snapshot that water and emergency management leaders can use to assess events, apply the protocols of their emergency plan, or make as-needed, event-specific decisions. Of course, effective early warning systems also account for how that information will be communicated to the public in clear, unmissable ways that protect as many people as possible.
How local leaders can manage floods with confidence
When a severe storm approaches and flooding becomes inevitable, quality leadership can be the difference between a best-case and worst-case scenario. Given that responsibility and pressure, it’s crucial for government, business, and emergency management leaders to pool data and resources to get the fullest possible picture of the situation and execute an effective response in a way that considers and empowers all stakeholders. At AEM, we call that “collaborative resilience.”
In order to practice collaborative resilience, teams need centralized access to timely and accurate information and the ability to communicate about that data in a clear, strategic way. If you’re interested in seeing how close your team’s existing stack is to a collaborative resilience toolkit, check out our Flood Readiness Assessment.
See our end-to-end flood readiness vision
If you’re in local government, emergency management, or the private sector and want to learn more about how AEM is helping communities around the world come together to build risk knowledge and improving flood readiness, the first step is to check out our vision and see if it resonates with your situation and challenges. From there, the next step is to schedule a flood services consultation, where we’ll get to know you on an individualized basis and begin to explore your options together.