Introduction: The 2021 European floods in Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands significantly impacted healthcare. With climate change increasing flood risks, healthcare preparedness is essential. Floods affect healthcare directly and indirectly by disrupting patient access, damaging infrastructure and impeding care continuity. Our interdisciplinary research in the Netherlands systematically assesses flood impacts on healthcare, optimises disaster preparedness, patient logistics, and continuity and explores crisis governance, incorporating lessons from coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19). Methods: Our multi-sited, interdisciplinary project titled “Pandemic lessons for flood disaster preparedness” includes literature reviews on: (i) the (in) direct impacts of floods on healthcare, (ii) disaster decision-making strategies and (iii) patient logistics during crises. Empirically, ethnographic methods (interviews, focus groups, document analyses, and observations) will: (a) assess hospital flood preparedness, (b) explore decision-making and crisis management strategies and (c) analyse the dynamics of health system governance during floods. Data from these sources and flood scenarios will inform models on healthcare impacts and decision-making, culminating in a simulation game for research and training. Discussion: This study offers a comprehensive, interdisciplinary approach to understanding and improving healthcare system preparedness for floods. By integrating diverse fields such as healthcare governance, disaster risk management, logistics and hydraulic engineering, we provide a unique lens on resilience. A key strength is the incorporation of lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing us to draw parallels between pandemic response and flood preparedness. In addition, our simulation game serves as a robust tool for translating knowledge into practice. However, the study’s reliance on collaboration with busy healthcare and disaster response professionals may limit engagement. Moreover, the absence of direct public and patient involvement in the research design, though partially mitigated by engaging representative organizations, presents a potential limitation. Lastly, the challenge of obtaining real-time data from flood events could introduce recall bias, but triangulation of various data sources aims to address this issue. Despite these challenges, the study’s integration of long-term data from recent floods and focus on healthcare-specific crisis governance provides valuable insights for improving disaster preparedness.

Urbanisation has led to urban population growth affecting the economy and the environment, including degrading air quality via pollution. Air pollution has been linked to a variety of conditions and health risks including heart disease, stroke, asthma, Alzheimer's and neurodevelopmental disorders. However, it is difficult for a citizen to find precise air pollution data at a particular location. Smart City strategies usually stipulate that city councils should focus on delivering platforms for active citizen participation using existing technology. Existing civic data hubs such as the London Datastore, Open Data Bristol etc., provide air pollution data but lack elaborate representations for user-defined locations. Existing air quality initiatives such as the Smart Citizen platform and Sensor.Community provide more advanced graphical representations. However, they restrict themselves to showing data coming from their respective devices. The paper presents the Open City Air Quality Platform (OpenCAQP), a development that merges a wide range of data sources and air pollution parameters into a single platform. The OpenCAQP allows citizens, environmentalists, data analysts, and developers to access and visualise data. The proposed solution contributes to two key objectives: i) analysis of the air pollution data sources available in a city; ii) a replicable scalable, modular open source capability aggregating and visualising air pollution data from multiple sources. Its effectiveness has been evaluated by measuring quality, usability and increased awareness of users through a feedback questionnaire.

This paper introduces a novel computational framework that integrates a three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) of buildings subjected to combined flood and earthquake events. Unlike traditional single-hazard analyses, this research explores the complex interactions between hydrodynamic forces from flooding and seismic loads. Using steel special moment-resisting frames (SMRFs) of varying heights in Los Angeles (USA), the response to 13 earthquake hazard levels and four flood inundation depths is evaluated. The framework incorporates computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for hydrodynamic modelling and finite element (FE) analysis for structural response assessment. Results highlight a significant increase inengineering demand parameters (EDPs), such as inter-story drift, floor accelerations, base shear, and ductility in multi-hazard scenarios. These findings underscore the need for a re-evaluation of building resilience in flood-prone areas.

Roadways provide safe and efficient transport and are essential to the function of societies and economies. However, climate change increasingly pushes pavements beyond their engineering limits, leading to deterioration. In this Review, we explore the impacts of climate change on roadways and approaches to mitigate them. Roadways are vulnerable to changes in temperature, precipitation and sea level rise driven by climate change. High temperatures soften asphalt pavements, causing rutting, which is projected to increase by 2% per 1% increase in mean temperature. Increased moisture in the underlying soil caused by precipitation and sea level rise reduces the load-bearing capacity of roadways for months and in some cases halves their lifetime. Roadway closures due to extreme weather events or resulting reconstruction cause delays and detours; by 2100, high tide flooding in the USA is expected to cause delays of 3.4 billion vehicle-hours per year. Climate change is projected to increase national annual costs of pavement maintenance by over US$500 million on average by 2050, depending on the country. Adaptation strategies include adjusting the type of asphalt, reinforcing concrete with steel, stabilizing gravel roads and adding nature-based features. Rapid implementation of policies, guidance on evaluating adaptation alternatives and exploration of the combined impacts of multiple climate stressors are needed.

A crucial step in assessing bridge condition is the identification and quantification of damage parameters and their associated limit states. To accurately represent the physical damage to bridges, it is essential to establish multiple, well-defined damage states with their limits that can be quantified using appropriate engineering demand parameters. These parameters ensure the precision and reliability of the assessment.While various codes and studies provide qualitative (and in some cases quantitative) descriptions of limit values of damage states, there is a notable lack of widely accepted quantitative definitions specific to bridges. This knowledge gap poses a significant challenge in the field of bridge engineering and damage assessment. Defining threshold values for damage states is a complex task, whether for individual bridge components or for the entire bridge system. The process of defining bridge damage states begins with a comprehensive review of existing codes and guidelines. This initial step involves examining various national and international standards, engineering manuals, and research publications to identify the range of damage states currently recognized in the field. Following this review, each identified damage state is carefully associated with a specific level of structural damage. By refining and standardizing damage state definitions, the reliability and comparability of bridge assessments can be significantly improved, leading to more effective risk management strategies, especially in the context of natural hazards and long-term durability.

Study region: The study focuses on Kerala, a state in the southwest of India. Kerala is composed of 14 districts, each characterised by variations in topography, climate, and land use patterns. Study focus: This review critically analyses the literature on flood risk assessment (FRA) in Kerala, particularly after the devastating 2018 floods. Kerala has experienced sporadic floods in the 21st century, caused by localized heavy rainfall, rapid urbanization and improper management of water resources. The 2018 Kerala Floods was one of the most catastrophic recent floods. Nearly all 14 districts were affected, over 480 people lost their lives, and more than a million were displaced. Anthropogenic factors, such as encroachment on wetlands, sand mining in riverbeds, and inadequate drainage systems in urban areas, have worsened the impact of floods. Despite the long history of flooding, flood management in Kerala has struggled to keep pace with the increasing magnitude and frequency of these events. Factors such as outdated infrastructure, uncoordinated dam management, and poor urban planning have exacerbated the impacts of floods. Against this backdrop, this review on flood risk assessment (FRA) in Kerala evaluates and synthesises existing methodologies to improve understanding of current state-of-the-art FRA in Kerala and provide a foundation for more effective flood management strategies. New hydrological insights for the region: The review identifies that research conducted after the 2018 floods can be categorised into three broad methodological themes: Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Predictive Modeling (including hydrological and hydraulic simulations), and Analytical Approaches (such as machine learning, statistical methods, and multi-criteria decision-making). The spatial focus of the studies reveals significant disparities, with Allapuzha being the most extensively studied district and Thiruvananthapuram receiving minimal attention. The review identifies critical gaps in the literature, including challenges in translating mitigation strategies, urban flooding stemming from poor land use planning, insufficient integration of various flood sources, and limited research on compound extreme events. Highlighting the urgency of translating the quantification of hazard to mitigation and the integration of climate change projections, the article provides avenues for further research for FRA in Kerala.

Hydrometeorological hazards, particularly floods and cyclones, pose significant threats to human health, including fatalities, damage to healthcare facilities (HCFs), and disruptions to health services. This study systematically reviewed scientific articles to identify the direct and indirect impacts of floods on HCFs and the risk management strategies implemented to address these challenges. To that end, we searched four databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science and Scopus) for articles written in English. Our search query included terms related to flood and cyclone hazards, HCF types and disaster risk management strategies. We followed the PRISMA guidelines to conduct the study. The search resulted in 7500 records, which were finally filtered down to 74 studies after removing duplicates, screening records and full article eligibility checks. Approximately 76 % of the included studies addressed cyclone-related flood impacts and were conducted in the United States. Hospitals were the most studied HCFs (n = 54) followed by long-term care facilities (n = 11). The main impact of floods on hospitals was due to flooded basements as they house important services including equipment, supplies and backup generators. Interruptions of electricity and water supplies were reported to cause serious challenges. Regarding flood risk management, patient evacuation was mentioned by more than 66 % of the studies while few studies reported the implementation of structural measures. More than a third of the studies reported the availability of preparedness plans. The review revealed inconsistencies in the flood preparedness of HCFs. The main policy recommendations are the availability of guidelines to standardize preparedness plans and oversight.

Bridges play a key role in the transportation network system and are vulnerable to various natural hazards. For bridges constructed over rivers, scour is one of the major causes of bridge failure.With the growing impacts of climate change, both the intensity and frequency of flood events are increasing, raising significant concerns regarding the safety and maintenance of bridge infrastructure. This study presents a method for remotely monitoring scouring which uses a Fibre Optic scour sensor based on Fibre Bragg Grating, named FOSS. The sensor comprises three sensing elements (fins), which are embedded at different depths. The systemoperates on the principle that, when erosion occurs, the movement of these fins generates a measurable response, indicating the depth of erosion. This paper presents the sensor’s characteristics and shows preliminary findings from a field deployment on a bridge in the Northern Ireland region.

When multiple weather-driven hazards such as heatwaves, droughts, storms or floods occur simultaneously or consecutively, their impacts on society and the environment can compound. Despite recent advances in compound event research, risk assessments by practitioners and policymakers remain predominantly single-hazard focused. This is largely due to traditional siloed approaches that assess and manage natural hazards. Hence, there is a need to adopt a more ‘multi-hazard approach’ to managing compound events in practice. This paper summarizes discussions from a 2-day workshop, held in Glasgow in January 2023, which brought together scientists, practitioners and policymakers to: (1) exchange a shared understanding of the concepts of compound and multi-hazard events; (2) learn from examples of science–policy–practice integration from both the single hazard and multi-hazard domains; and (3) explore how success stories could be used to improve the management of compound events and multi-hazard risks. Key themes discussed during the workshop included developing a common language, promoting knowledge co-production, fostering science–policy–practice integration, addressing complexity, utilising case studies for improved communication and centralising information for informed research, tools and frameworks. By bringing together experts from science, policy and practice, this workshop has highlighted ways to quantify compound and multi-hazard risks and synergistically incorporate them into policy and practice to enhance risk management.

Subgrid sampling (SGS) has been increasingly integrated into hydraulic modelling to refine terrain representation without excessively increasing computational demands. This study investigates the effects of SGS and nature-based solutions (NbS), focusing on flow velocities, storage volumes and mass balance stability. Using a rain-on-grid TUFLOW model, we simulate a 1-in-30-year flood event across different NbS interventions, including leaky dams, floodplain planting and bunds with floodable depressions. Results demonstrate that higher SGS frequencies of 11 significantly enhance terrain resolution, improving the representation of flow paths and floodplain activation. However, a lower SGS frequency of three introduces notable numerical artefacts, leading to persistent negative cumulative volume errors and misrepresenting water retention within the system. NbS interventions generally minimise peak flow rates, with bunds and depressions (Option 3) proving the most effective, achieving a storage volume increase of up to 162.83% compared to the baseline scenario. Mass balance assessments show that models without SGS overestimate flood storage, potentially misguiding NbS implementation and compliance with flood storage regulations such as the UK Reservoirs Act (1975).

Despite investments in disaster resilience, flooding continues to disrupt healthcare systems, both by limiting access and through failures in the surrounding transportation network. Existing models for mitigation planning often overlook critical dynamics, such as traffic rerouting, particularly at the national scales necessary for effective planning. Here we present a scalable method to identify hospitals at risk of emergency response delays and service disruptions caused by flood-induced traffic impacts. Our approach integrates a regional flood model with a gravity-based traffic model to simulate traffic flow from open-source road data. Our findings reveal hidden risks for hospitals located far from flood zones, showing how flood-related road disruptions and traffic rerouting can reduce access to critical healthcare services. In particular, we found 75 (of 2,475) hospitals at risk of patient surges beyond their regular capacity, driven solely by flood-related traffic disruptions. Of these, a third are more than 10 km from the nearest inundation, suggesting these facilities may be unaware and thus under-prepared — risks that have, until now, remained hidden from assessments.

Hydro meteorological hazards, especially floods and cyclones, present considerable risks to public health, leading to fatalities, physical damage to healthcare facilities (HCFs), and major disruptions in health care delivery. This study undertook a systematic review of academic literature to explore both the direct and indirect effects of flooding on HCFs, along with the risk management approaches employed to mitigate these impacts. We conducted searches across four major databases (MEDLINE, Embase, Web of Science, and Scopus) for English-language publications, using keywords related to floods, cyclones, healthcare facility types, and disaster risk reduction. The review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. We screened 7500 records, ultimately selecting 74 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Roughly 76% of the selected studies focused on cyclone-induced flooding and were mostly based in the United States. Hospitals emerged as the most frequently studied HCF type (n = 54), followed by long-term care facilities (n = 11). A prevalent issue reported was basement flooding, which affected critical systems such as equipment storage, medical supplies, and backup power. Disruptions to electricity and water services also posed severe operational challenges. While more than two-thirds of the studies referenced patient evacuation procedures, relatively few reported the use of structural mitigation strategies. Over one-third mentioned the presence of emergency preparedness plans. However, the review uncovered a lack of consistency in the preparedness levels among HCFs. To improve resilience, the main policy recommendation is to develop standardized guidelines and strengthen oversight of preparedness planning.

With climate change intensifying risks of extreme precipitation and riverine flooding, reassessing building resilience under multi-hazard scenarios, particularly those involving earthquakes, has become increasingly important. This study proposes an integrated framework for three-dimensional (3D) nonlinear time history analysis (NLTHA) to evaluate structural performance under sequential earthquake and flood events. By coupling advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations with earthquake engineering methods, the framework captures the time-dependent interaction of seismic and hydrodynamic forces. This overcomes limitations of previous research that relied on oversimplified flood-earthquake interaction models. The analysis focuses on steel special moment-resisting frame (SMRF) buildings in Los Angeles, California. Thirteen seismic hazard levels and four flood inundation depths are analysed, producing detailed engineering demand parameters (EDPs) for both earthquake-only and combined hazard scenarios. Structural vulnerability is evaluated through ductility and plastic hinge rotation in columns and beams. Results show flooding significantly amplifies EDPs, especially in lower stories and front-facing elements, emphasising the need to revise design and assessment strategies for buildings in flood-prone areas. Furthermore, vortex shedding and asymmetric water flow patterns around corners and side columns increase localised hydrodynamic pressures. This integrated approach provides engineers with a comprehensive framework for analysing structures to withstand future climate-driven multi-hazard events.

Urban resilience to natural hazards could make our cities less vulnerable to adverse weather events. However, the implementation of resilience actions is currently not effective, as mechanisms to facilitate collaboration among involved stakeholders are missing. This paper for the first time explores causal mapping as a method to disassemble major issues of urban resilience into a more manageable understanding, and thus identify key objectives, barriers and opportunities in thinking “resilient cities”. In this study, a cognitive-mapping-based workshop was held to elicit information from stakeholders in the remit of urban resilience to flooding. The statements and connections identified during the workshop led a consolidated map, analysed using the StrategyFinder software. This analysis highlighted barriers related to data availability, silo-based approaches and lack of funding; it also evidenced shared goals, such as the need to protect the built environment and minimise impact from flooding. Overall, causal mapping resulted a powerful analytical tool for improving understanding of the complex dynamics of urban resilience, identifying key variables and relationships, as well as eliciting information from stakeholders. Furthermore, this approach facilitated systems thinking, communication and collaboration. This enhanced understanding is fundamental for advancing strategies for future planning, contributing to urban sustainability and liveability.

Flood hazards can affect road networks by closing roads, extending travel distances and lengthening travel times. This paper innovatively integrates flood hazard, road network topology and vehicle vulnerability via a severity factor to assess the accessibility of exposed links and the performance of the whole network. The overall network functionality loss under different flood return periods is assessed by evaluating the functionality of each network link for cars and SUVs. The most vulnerable links are identified and used to assess the performance of the entire network using topology-based metrics such as average shortest paths and isochrones. The case study of Bristol (UK) is investigated. It is demonstrated that network status is a function of vehicle typology, with SUVs exhibiting naturally stronger resistance to flood than cars. This finding can support preparedness strategies of road networks in the face of future flood events.

Visual inspection remains an essential tool for assessing structural damage. Damage detection is a challenging task for those specifying, designing, and deploying SHM systems. Often only traditional visual inspection processes are available to determine the type and extent of structural damage. For bridge structures in the UK, a regime of general (every two years) and principal (every six years) inspections is often followed. Such visual inspections are time-consuming and costly in terms of both labour and financial resources. Therefore, the possibility of completing more of the bridge visual inspection process offsite has many potential benefits for bridge owners and managers during the service life of the asset. Recent research conducted at the University of Bristol in collaboration with industrial partners has examined how to make the best use of metrics derived from visual inspection data when assessing bridge condition and planning maintenance activities. Recent research into which aspects of the current visual inspection regime in the UK could potentially be moved offsite has also been carried out. This paper summarises these research efforts and discusses how AI may be used as part of future enhancements to visual inspection data capture and analysis.

The flow field near bridge piers is analysed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to investigate bridge scour, which is one of the main safety concerns for bridges. Two indicators are used to characterise the scour hole, the horseshoe vortex (HV) core position relative to the bed, and the area of wall shear stress (WSS) above a sediment transport threshold of 1 Pa. The underlying fluid mechanics is detailed, establishing the relation between vorticity generation, the fluid strain rate and the WSS. The CFD models are validated against results in the literature, for the free surface around the pier and for the WSS at the bed. A parametric study with different pier widths, mass flow rates (MFR), and pier shapes is carried out, and these results are compared to an adapted pier with diverting fin inserted in the front. The adaptation shows that the diverting fin reduced the strength of the HV in front of the pier, and also reduces the total area of bed WSS above the threshold.

Hydraulic actions resulting in scour are a major cause of bridge failures worldwide. The development of scour is affected by various factors including structural geometry, river morphology and weather conditions. Detection of scour is often carried out using visual inspection-based methods. Visual inspection requires the expertise of divers which incurs high levels of risk, especially during times of high-water flow. Therefore, sensing technologies are becoming increasingly popular with the aim to supplement or replace higher risk visual inspection approaches. Specification of Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) systems is an important activity for bridge engineers and asset managers. This activity can be assisted by SHM rating frameworks, the use of which gives evidence to support specification of monitoring systems for individual bridges. In this paper, three previously published scour rating frameworks are compared using a bridge case study database.

Digitalisation and the Internet of Things (IoT) help city councils improve services, increase productivity and reduce costs. City-scale monitoring of traffic and pollution enables the development of insights into low-air quality areas and the introduction of improvements. IoT provides a platform for the intelligent interconnection of everyday objects and has become an integral part of a citizen's life. Anyone can monitor from their fitness to the air quality of their immediate environment using everyday technologies. With caveats around privacy and accuracy, such data could even complement those collected by authorities at city-scale, for validating or improving policies. The authors explore the hierarchies of urban sensing from citizen-to city-scale, how sensing at different levels may be interlinked, and the challenges of managing the urban IoT. The authors provide examples from the UK, map the data generation processes across levels of urban hierarchies and discuss the role of emerging sociotechnical urban sensing infrastructures, that is, independent, open, and transparent capabilities that facilitate stakeholder engagement and collection and curation of grassroots data. The authors discuss how such capabilities can become a conduit for the alignment of community- and city-level action via an example of tracking the use of shared electric bicycles in Bristol, UK.

The availability of new types of environmental data has the potential to change the ways in which cities are governed to improve their sustainability, resilience, and livability. Distributed sensors delivering real-time data can improve the monitoring and management of urban systems, as well as enabling robust assessments of policy and planning interventions. Real-time high-resolution sensor data provides a wealth of new opportunities for understanding systems and the interaction of physical, technical and anthropogenic activity. These benefits include long (multi-year) data baselines of high-resolution data enabling new statistical and artificial intelligence approaches; realtime analytics and visualizations supporting decision support systems; vulnerability or incipient failure detection to enable (proactive) maintenance rather than (subsequent, reactive) repair; parameterization of urban digital twins of physical and natural systems for simulation and prediction and what-if scenario testing; post-event analysis and post-intervention analysis across multiple phenomena at different timescales; and digital playback of systems when singularities, oversights, mistakes or other unforeseen events occur.