FLOODING
Flood Risk, Property and Resilience
Flooding is one of the most significant environmental and climate-related risks affecting land, property and communities in the UK.
Flooding can arise from a range of sources, including rivers, the sea, surface water, groundwater, overwhelmed drainage systems and reservoirs. These risks can occur individually or in combination and may change over time as a result of climate change, development, land-use change and changes to drainage and infrastructure.
Understanding flood risk is therefore increasingly important when making decisions about land, property, development, investment and long-term asset management.
Flooding and Surveying
Flooding has implications across a wide range of surveying disciplines.
Flood risk can affect the use, development, management, insurance, mortgageability and value of property. Surveyors may also be involved in identifying flood-related risks, advising on resilience and adaptation, considering drainage and development proposals and assessing the implications of previous flooding.
RICS's 2025 practice information, Flooding and its implications for property professionals, emphasises the need for surveyors to take a broad and strategic view of flood risk and recognises the contribution of different surveying disciplines to prevention, mitigation, resilience and remediation.
RICS – Flooding and its implications for property professionals
Understanding Flood Risk
Flood risk is a combination of the probability of flooding occurring and the potential
consequences if it does
The source of risk is also important. A property that is not located close to a river or the coast may still be exposed to surface-water or groundwater flooding, for example.
Government flood-risk mapping provides an important starting point for understanding risk. In England, the Environment Agency's long-term flood-risk service provides information about risk from rivers and the sea, surface water, reservoirs and groundwater where data is available. However, the service provides information about an area rather than the likelihood of an individual property flooding.
Environment Agency – Check the long-term flood risk for an area in England
More detailed property or development decisions may therefore require further investigation and appropriately qualified professional advice.
Climate Change and Flood Resilience
Climate change makes consideration of future as well as current flood risk increasingly important.
Changes in rainfall, river flows, sea levels and extreme weather can alter the nature and severity of flooding over the lifetime of buildings, infrastructure and development. Environment Agency guidance consequently requires climate-change allowances to be considered in relevant flood-risk assessments.
Resilience is therefore not simply about preventing water from reaching a property. It also involves considering how land, buildings and communities can prepare for flooding, reduce potential damage and recover more effectively when flooding occurs.
Property Flood Resilience
Property Flood Resilience (PFR) describes measures that can reduce the likelihood of floodwater entering a building or reduce the damage and disruption caused when flooding does occur.
Measures may include flood-resistant doors and barriers, self-closing air bricks, non-return valves, appropriate wall and floor materials, changes to electrical services and other adaptations designed around the characteristics of the individual property.
RICS supports the CIRIA Code of Practice for Property Flood Resilience and stresses the importance of appropriately experienced professional advice because there is no single solution suitable for every property.
RICS – Consumer guide to flooding and property flood resilience
Flooding, Land and Development
Flood risk is also an important consideration in planning and development.
The planning system seeks to direct development away from areas at greatest risk where appropriate and to ensure that development is safe and resilient over its lifetime.
Depending upon the location and nature of a proposal, this may require a Flood Risk Assessment (FRA) and consideration of Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), climate-change allowances and the potential effects of development on flood risk elsewhere. Current Environment Agency guidance sets out requirements for development across Flood Zones 1, 2, 3 and 3b.
Flood management can also extend beyond individual buildings. Land management, natural flood management, drainage, green infrastructure and nature-based solutions can all form part of a broader approach to managing water and increasing resilience.
Flooding, Sustainability and Value
Flooding demonstrates particularly clearly the connections between environmental change and property decision-making.
Flood risk can influence property condition, insurance, investment decisions, development potential and market value. RICS notes that Chartered Valuation Surveyors must consider flood risk when valuing property and that its effect on value will depend upon factors including location, construction, flood defences and property-specific resilience.
Flooding also connects with wider sustainability considerations including climate adaptation, biodiversity, natural capital, land management, community resilience and sustainable development.
Managing flood risk therefore requires consideration not only of current hazards but of how properties, places and communities can adapt to changing conditions over time.
Sustain Surveying and Flood Risk
Sustain Surveying provides independent professional analysis and advice on flooding, resilience and sustainability considerations affecting land, property and development.
Our approach brings together surveying expertise, sustainability research, RICS guidance, government policy and wider professional evidence to help clients identify and understand flood-related issues relevant to a particular property, area of land, project or decision.
Advice may include initial identification and interpretation of flood-risk information; consideration of the implications of flooding for land and property decisions; climate adaptation and resilience considerations; review of relevant professional and policy guidance; and consideration of connections between flooding, natural capital, land management, development and sustainability.
Where an instruction requires a specialist Flood Risk Assessment, detailed hydrological or drainage design, engineering assessment or other specialist technical work, the need for appropriately qualified specialist input will be identified.
Related Topics
Environmental Management | Natural Capital | Planning and Development | Climate and Resilience | Property | Valuation
Discuss a Flooding or Resilience Issue
If you would like to discuss flood risk or resilience considerations affecting a property, area of land, development or project, please contact Sustain Surveying.
Professional advice can be provided for a defined project or instruction, with the scope and fee agreed in advance.
Flooding Resilience:
