uk domestic property vulnerability and risk mitigation

8/6/2019 UK Domestic Property Vulnerability and Risk Mitigation

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UK domestic property vulnerability and

risk mitigation

Terminology

Acceptable risk level of loss a community consider acceptable

Biological hazard exposure to bioactive substances which may cause loss of life, or injury or damage.

Building codes Regulations controlling design and construction

Capacity a combination of all strengths and resources available

Capacity building efforts aimed to help develop skills within a community, organisation or institution

Climate change r efers to statistical variations in state of climate or in variability

Coping capacity the manner in which people and organisations use existing resources

Counter measures all measures taken to counter and reduce disaster risk.

Disaster a serious type of disruption of the functioning on a community or a society

Disaster risk reduction the systematic development and application of policies, strategies and practices to minimise

vulnerabilities and disaster risks.

Early warning the provision of time for individuals at risk to prepare for an effective response

Ecosystem a system of interacting living organisms with their physical environment

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) study to assess the effect on a specified environment of any new fact or

Environmental degradation- processes induced by human behaviour and activities that damage the natural resource

Forecast definite statement or statistical estimate of the occurrence of a future event (UNESCO, WMO)

Geological hazard natural earth processes or phenomena

Greenhouse gas a gas, such as water vapour, carbon dioxide, methane, CFCs etc that contribute to the earths surface

and contributing to climate change

Hazard a potentially damaging physical event

Hazard analysis


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Floods and Protection (Prague)

What makes populations and artefacts in flood risk cities vulnerabley Not enough flood protection of a city will make a flood risk city vulnerabley The need to protect historical documents and other features of a city may outweigh flood protections.y Insufficiency of current protectiony Unsuitable areas for installation of protection

Features and elements comprising such systemsFlood protection system based on a combination of permanent elements (dykes, walls)

Protection can be provided for properties including;

y Invaluable cultural landmarks, without too many m odifications to the cities historical featuresPrague had a flood protection system divided into 7 parts and was tested during a August 2002 flood.

Over head part

y portable barriery Stone foundation sill in the sidewalk

Underground permanent part

y Walls, piles and beamsAdvantages of portable barrier system

y Low weight of the elementsy Easy to transporty Quick assemblyy Fairly universal, can be used to increase wall height or close passagesy Can be reusedy Constructed in separate section

Key benefits and costsy Costing 82 million Eurosy Barriers appear where needed the mosty Prioritisation may require ignoring some building/infrastructure cost benefit decisions!

Flood risk of PragueIncomes are threatened, livelihoods are threatened

Vulnerability & threats of location

Whats in water?

-chemicals, disease, nuclear waste etc

Meandering river if flooded...

y Services will be disruptedy Pipes high pressurey leaks, dirty water comes in


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Subsidence and Insurance

Introduction andbackground to subsidence and problemsy 1976 and it was the longest hot summer recorded since 1727y A severe drought dried up reservoirs and part of the country got no rainfall at all for several week sy A minister was appointed for the droughty Subsidence is the downward movement of the ground supporting a buildingy Damage occurs because movement is uneven

Trees and subsidencey Identify the trees which are m ostly likely to cause subsidencey Investigate claims within relat ion to these treesy Claims should be assessed, and remedial pruning carried out as soon as practicably possibley The authority should also insist the claimant provide adequate evidence in support of the claim

Joint Mitigation Protocoly Aims to speed up c laims handling, decision making a nd mitigation implementationy Recognises the value of tress built in the environmenty Provides local authorities

Land Instability

Jack field Landslip 1952

y 1952 a major landslip occurred in the Iron bridge Gorge at Jack fieldy 20 buildings were destroyed or made unsafey A further landslip in the 80s remains today as a temporary surfacey River erosion and the tipping of waste may not have helped the situation

Reasons for instability

y The geology of the areay Hydrology surface run off and underground water flowy Erosion of river banksy Past mining and quarrying for coal, limestone and clayy The local tipping of waste and spoily Steep slopesy Human chances to vegetation and buildings

Managing problems of slope instability

Ensuring all reasonable steps are taken to investigate and monitor land instability

To identify and undertake approximate measures to deal with existing damage and to minimise

potential dangers and inconvenience from future movement

To ensure that appropriate arrangements are in place to respond to major in place to respond to

major incidents of land movement


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Subsidence

y Generally distinctive in the appearance of buildingsy Heavingy Landslipy All buildings can suffer damage from causes such as;- Consolidation

- Temperature changes in superstructure

- drying and shrinking of building materials

Solutions?

Some simple actions can be taken if you live in a clay soil area;

y Do not plant trees or large shrubs close to the house, garage or out buildingsy Trees which are older than the building but within the safe distance can be managed by

controlling the growthy Trees which are older than the structure should not be removed as this can cause uplift and

heaving

y Never move a tree with a preservation order with appropriate consentHomes in a shrinkable clay area with minor cracks of widths up to 5mm can occur during dry spells

and treated by redecoration during the wetter months

If these cracks do not close or open beyond 5mm there is a long term problem and your insurance

company should be contacted

Residata

What is Residata?

y Residata is a computer database of all UK buildingsy It characterises around 200 forms in the 25 million British dwellings across Britain

WhatResidata shows?

y Dwelling types are quickly identifiedy Residata includes schedules of typical features and fabric of building type structure,

construction, finishes and expected maintenance characteristics

Residata Risk Factors

y For insurance purposes each dwelling type is evaluated against a range of eighty typicalhazards

y Resultant risk factors are expressed as numbers which increase with the falling stability ofground in the postcode area


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Residata RebuildRates

y All dwelling types within Residata are linked to cost data showing rebuilding costy - according to size, region, original quality, special features such as listed building status and

typical market values

y Cost indices are updated quarterly

Flood Damage to Residential; houses and related social impacts

Summary

y Flood schemes are justified on the basis of the potential damage to residential propertiesy Residential flood damage is significant in all cases o serious flooding in the UKy Flooding in houses remain an area of public and governmental concerny Flood damage can be measured as the direct and indirect losses as the tangible and

intangible impacts of flooding on residential properties and house holders

Insurance Industry working to improve protection against floods

Summary

y Government estimates 1.8 million homes are at risk from inland or coastland floodingtotalling 220 billion worth of assets.

y Insurers give advice to policy holders, arrange alternative accommodation and give adviceon protecting household contents.

y Insurance minimises the cost of damage from floodingy Insurance has been replaced by a risk based pricing system where good information is

available on risk levels.

y This allows customers to be offered competitive prices if they live in low risk areasy The higher the risk the more costly the damage and the premium to be chargedy Some properties in the UK are uninsurable because the flooding risk is too highy Insurance is vital for the repercussions of an accident, but it is more important to reduce the

risk of these unfortunate occurrences.

y Insurance industry via ABI created a 2 year agreement on flood cover.y The average cost of household insurance claims has hardly changed since 1994


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uk domestic property vulnerability and risk mitigation

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