Designing flood resilience into new buildings

Images of people piling up sandbags outside their properties are common when a flood warning is raised. These temporary flood protection measures, and others too, may reduce damage from flood waters, but the most effective means of increasing the flood resilience of a property is to design measures during the planning stage of a new building.

Zurich has developed new guidance explaining the measures you can take during the planning and design stages of a new building to mitigate the impact of a flood event on the property.

It is not an exhaustive list of recommendations and nor does it ensure your building will be 100% protected from flood water damage. But as part of a comprehensive resilience strategy that includes both physical and organizational flood measures, the guidance will help improve the flood resilience of your building and reduce the likelihood of flood damage.