SME resilience to extreme weather events:important initiatives for informing policy making in the area

Abstract

Enhancing the resilience of local communities to weather extremes has gained significant interest over the years, amidst the increased intensity and frequency of such events. The fact that such weather extremes are forecast to further increase in number and severity in future has added extra weight to the importance of the issue. As a local community consists of a number of community groups such as households, businesses and policy makers, the actions of different community groups in combination will determine the resilience of the community as a whole. An important role has to be played by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs); which is an integral segment of a local community in the UK, in this regard. While it is recognised that they are vital to the economy of a country and determines the prosperity of communities, they are increasingly vulnerable to effects of extreme weather. This paper discusses some of the exploratory studies conducted in the UK on SMEs and their ability to cope with extreme weather events, specifically flooding. Although a reasonable level of awareness of the risk was observed among the SMEs, this has not always resulted in increased preparedness even if they are located in areas at risk of flooding. The attitude and the motivation to change differed widely between SMEs. The paper presents schemas by which the SMEs can identify their vulnerability better so that they can be populated among a community of SMEs, which can be taken forward to inform policy making in this area. Therefore the main contribution the paper makes to the body of knowledge in the area is a novel way to communicate to SMEs on improving resilience against extreme weather, which will inform some of the policy making initiatives in the UK.

Divisions: College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > School of Infrastructure and Sustainable Engineering > Engineering Systems and Supply Chain Management
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences > Sustainable environment research group
College of Engineering & Physical Sciences
Additional Information: © 2011 The Authors
Event Title: 7th Annual International Conference of International Institute for Infrastructure, Renewal and Reconstruction
Event Type: Other
Event Dates: 2011-07-19 - 2011-07-21
Uncontrolled Keywords: Extreme Weather Events,Flood risk,SMEs,Resilience
Last Modified: 14 Mar 2024 08:28
Date Deposited: 29 Sep 2014 09:50
Full Text Link: http://iiirr.uc ... s/iiirr/208.pdf
Related URLs:
PURE Output Type: Paper
Published Date: 2011
Authors: Ingirige, Bingunath
Wedawatta, Gayan (ORCID Profile 0000-0002-8600-5077)

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