Resilient buildings
We will work to minimise the risks of climate change by ensuring the City of London Corporation's buildings are resilient to those risks. To achieve this, we have established a Resilient Buildings Project and a Net Zero Centre of Excellence to drive leadership, best practice, research, support and training to all areas of building decarbonisation and resilience work at the City Corporation.
The project will:
- Identify resilience risks to the City Corporation’s buildings
- Embed resilience measures to planned works in the City where possible
- Implement and monitor risk mitigation measures in our Climate Action Dashboard
- Ensure alignment with our Design Standards, which include considerations for resilience, risks and mitigation measures.
In 2022 Arcadis consultants modelled predicted climatic conditions in the City of London by creating a digital twin of the Square Mile. Incorporating different scenarios, we could determine the heat stress and pluvial flooding impacts that may occur and highlight the most vulnerable areas. To mitigate the impacts, we are designing intervention measures in a Buildings Resilience Action Plan to adapt the City Corporation's most vulnerable assets.
To bring the twin city to life, we used City Corporation’s data, the aerial survey company Verisk’s data, Greater London Authority tree data and Thames Water’s information and calculated the gutter capacity for the storm water system. The model uses a Geodesign platform, combining (geo) data, models and applications and integrates the City Corporation’s ground-breaking Thermal Comfort Guidelines. This digital twin provides a visual representation of the current situation in the City, which we used to calculate the effects of extreme precipitation and extreme heat.
The modelling identified assets in the City with a heightened risk of impact from climate change hazards such as heat stress during periods of prolonged hot weather and flood risk during high-intensity rainfall events. To mitigate the impacts, a suite of intervention measures have been proposed to be considered during the design of new buildings and the retrofit of existing ones.
The modelling outcomes will enable us to prioritise intervention measures on potentially vulnerable assets, increasing their resilience to future climate events.
The modelling will mitigate health impacts where overheating may be an issue for workers and residents and improve occupant comfort and the internal environment.