Flood-Resilience for ICI Properties

Flood-Resilience for ICI Properties

Flooding and heavy rain can disrupt operations, damage property, and lead to costly repairs and downtime for industrial, commercial and institutional properties. By improving flood resilience, you can reduce risk, protect buildings and equipment, and keep facilities operating safely.

We encourage property owners and operators to take steps to improve flood resilience and better prepare for flooding.

What Is Flood-Resilience?

Flood resilience means taking steps to help:

  • manage stormwater more effectively
  • reduce the risk of flooding and sewer backups
  • protect buildings, infrastructure and operations
  • recover more quickly after heavy rain or flooding

For ICI properties, this can include planning, maintenance, emergency preparedness, and long-term site or building improvements.

Why it matters

ICI properties often have large roofs, paved surfaces and drainage systems that can be vulnerable during heavy rain. As intense rainfall becomes more common, improving flood resilience can help:

  • reduce damage and repair costs
  • limit disruptions and downtime
  • protect equipment, inventory and infrastructure
  • improve safety for staff, tenants and visitors
  • better manage stormwater on site

Common flood risks

We may face increased flood risk because of:

  • large roofs and parking areas that create runoff
  • limited space for water to soak into the ground
  • aging drainage infrastructure or blocked catch basins
  • low lying entrances, basements or loading docks
  • materials or equipment stored in vulnerable areas

Ways to improve flood resilience

Depending on the property, we can improve flood resilience through:

  • on site stormwater measures such as permeable pavement, rain gardens, bioswales and storage systems
  • building protections such as backwater valves, sump pumps, flood proofing and improved roof drainage
  • regular maintenance, including cleaning drains and catch basins and keeping drainage routes clear
  • emergency planning, staff training, updated contact lists and data backups
  • equipment and supplies such as pumps, backup power, water sensors and flood barriers
  • long term upgrades such as raising HVAC and electrical systems and protecting utility spaces

These measures can be added during new construction, upgrades, retrofits or routine maintenance.

Learn more about the Costs of Inflow and Infiltration, and how you can improve flood resiliency on your property.

Benefits

Improving flood resilience can help us:

  • reduce damage and emergency repair costs
  • improve safety and operational reliability
  • support long term cost savings
  • advance sustainability goals
  • protect property value and critical assets

Use the checklist

To help get started, we have developed a Flood Resilience Checklist for ICI Properties. It provides a practical summary of actions we can take to better prepare our sites and operations for flooding.