Building Resilient Cities, Ep. 2: How to fight flood damage?

The rise in average sea level is predicted to double by 2100, putting hundreds of cities and millions of people at ever greater risk from the devastating effects of flooding. In 2016, flood damage in the Paris region cost an estimated 1 billion Euros, so for this and many other cities, finding new and better ways to protect the property, infrastructure, and lives of their citizens is a race against time.

Providing the most valuable defense: time

Supported by the AXA Research Fund, Dr. Vazken Andréassian is working to improve the forecasting of floods in order to build more resilient cities. His research is using a wide range of data to better calibrate flood models to more accurately simulate the impact a flood wave will have on a city. This provides the basis of an early warning system for when and where flooding will happen, providing people with the most valuable defense against flood damage – time to act.

Simon Blaquière, flood specialist working at AXA, works with Dr. Andréassian to improve AXA’s knowledge about flood and provide better information to AXA’s clients, cities or individuals, in order to better protect them in the long term.

This is one episode of five short films with the AXA Research Fund and National Geographic to inspire understanding of the hazards faced by urban areas, and the ways in which we are working to minimize their impact and make the world’s cities safer. Other films in this series cover urban data and spatial planning, air pollution, earthquakes, and the role of insurance in the resilience of cities.

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