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The move towards multi-faceted approaches to flood risk management is cemented in the European Union (EU) Floods Directive (Directive 2007/60/EC). Across Europe, resources are diverted towards softer interventions such as using the planning system to control developments in flood risk areas, and citizens are encouraged to live with floods. Damage mitigation nevertheless remains important and a market has therefore been developing for technologies that help to manage flood risk at the receptor scale, such as door and window guards and perimeter barriers. However, little empirical research has been undertaken that analyses how such technologies might fit with holistic flood risk management strategies. This paper reports on a multidisciplinary research project which investigated, developed and tested innovative technologies to protect buildings and urban infrastructure from floods. The paper discusses testing parameters, the limitations of technologies and the barriers that impede their uptake.

Climate change and disaster pose a serious and growing risk to sustainable urban development planning, with disasters having quadrupled in the last three decades. The extent of the changing climatic conditions, in combination with growing urbanisation, is making both Southern and Northern institutions and associated social security and governance systems increasingly inadequate in dealing with extreme weather events. This results in an urgent need to discover innovative ways to adapt “outdated” institutional responses and to increase local-level engagement. This paper analyses current risk financing mechanisms at local and institutional levels in both a Southern and a Northern city (San Salvador and Manchester respectively). The North’s dependency on insurance fails to contribute to resilience whereas the South’s reliance on nongovernmental aid organisations (NGOs) has driven a range of bottom-up approaches that support improved risk reduction. Although measures for risk financing are still not part of the NGOs’ repertoire, this provides lessons from which Northern cities could also learn.