Research shows how inclusive community engagement supports flood resilience

How does engagement shape and strengthen community flood resilience in practice?

Olutayo Ekundayo, a PhD researcher at De Montfort University, is exploring how community engagement processes and community flood resilience assessment frameworks can be aligned to better understand, measure, and support resilience in socially diverse communities.

Through interviews and focus group discussions with flood risk management practitioners, stakeholders and communities, Tayo’s research has found that strong community engagement helps people work together, build trust and take action, making communities more resilient to flooding.

Tayo’s poster summarising the research, Bridging Community Engagement and the Development of Flood Resilient Communities, was presented at the DMU Sustainability Frontiers Conference in April 2026 and won the Best Poster Award.  Congratulations to Tayo and his co-authors, Ezekiel Olatunji at the University of Wolverhampton, and Taiwo Adedeji at De Montfort University.

Funding and support

Tayo’s supervisory team includes Professor David Proverbs (De Montfort University), Professor Chaminda Pathirage (University of Wolverhampton), Professor Subashini Suresh (University of Wolverhampton), with technical input from Phil Emonson (JBA Consulting) through JBA Trust’s Doctoral Research Programme.

This research is supported by the FAIR (Flood: Aware, Informed and Resilient) project and funded by the UK Government’s Flood and Coastal Resilience Innovation Programme (FCRIP).