明星八卦

The Centre for Flood Risk and Resilience (CFR2) brings together a diverse team of colleagues with various discipline expertise (including engineers, environmental scientists, geographers, economists, health scientists, etc.) and a wide range of research network as well as industry and policy partners, focussed on addressing the multifaceted challenges of flood risk and resilience in the UK and globally.

Our history

The Centre was first initiated in February 2018, funded by the Office for Students as a ‘Catalyst Project’, in partnership with the Environment Agency, HR Wallingford, CIWEM, ICE blue, Jacobs and VolkerStevin as a knowledge and skills creation hub with a focus on meeting current and emerging CFR2 related skills gaps and needs in the UK and beyond, through, for example, the development of CIWEM-accredited and industry-targeted e-Learning courses*. After successful two years of capacity building and IPD/CPD (Initial/Continued Professional Development) training offerings, the Centre has expanded its remit into the research sphere, while retaining its strong education and training elements, and was re-established in 2020 as one of 明星八卦’s strategic and interdisciplinary university-wide Research Centres. The Centre’s overarching mission is to integrate Research & Development with full- and part-time research-led education (at Levels 5 through to 8, i.e., BEng/MEng to PhD degree programmes), as well as (up- and re-skilling) training and professional development (industry focused).

Our research

The Centre’s research objective is to develop a world-leading interdisciplinary research portfolio across flood risk and resilience priorities in the UK as well as internationally. As part of this, the CFR2 team combines extensive expertise in flood-related science and engineering, hazard management, risk analysis, climate change impacts and adaptation, sustainable and resilient infrastructure development, and hazard/risk communication and education in order to address four strategic challenge areas: Communities, Digital, Health, and Sustainability. 

Our research impact

Our research aims to address the significant and growing challenges of flood risk and resilience in the UK and globally. With much of our research being international, the companies who we work with have significant portfolios of international business, highlighting the far-reaching impact of our research supporting businesses, communities, policy makers, infrastructure owners, and wider organisations to enhance their resilience to flooding and inform their decision-making to climate change adaptation. 

The Centre’s research priorities are also strongly linked to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG3 (Health), SDG6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities), SDG13 (Climate Action), and SDG15 (Life on Land); with contributions to these goals playing a critical role to 明星八卦’s International Strategy and commitment to Sustainability.

Our educational and training product and service offerings also create value for:

• Students––providing e-learning courses to support their curriculum and future career choices,
• Early career engineers––providing Initial and/or Continuing Professional Development content and activities to help with development and progression,
• Flood professionals––providing awareness and knowledge they need, including scientific and engineering advances in the area, to help them to carry out their role or job with respect to flood risk and resilience,
• Industry––providing the opportunities for re-/up-skilling professionals to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the full range of UK and global infrastructure projects.

Our e-learning courses

We run the following CIWEM-accredited e-Learning courses:

Contact us

For more information about the Centre for Flood Risk and Resilience (CFR2), please contact the Director, Professor Trevor Hoey, Pro Vice-Chancellor (International and Sustainability) and Professor of River Science, via Email: Trevor.Hoey@brunel.ac.uk | Telephone: +44 (0) 7747 486673 | Location: Eastern Gateway 301J.