2.3.2. Bristol

Located in the south-west England, predominantly on a limestone area, Bristol is one of the most densely populated parts of the UK and, after London, the second largest city in the southern region. Most of the urban extent of Bristol is based around the watercourses and river network, with two major rivers flowing through the city (Avon and Frome rivers), resulting in a characteristically hilly landscape. It is one of the warmest cities in the UK and there is a relatively even distribution of rainfall throughout the year, although the autumn and winter seasons tend to be the wettest. Within this context, Bristol has been investing in plans to create and improve resilient systems to tackle its various urban challenges. Based on the analyses conducted by local and international actors working on resilience, the main urban challenges in Bristol can be profiled firstly in terms of natural and environmental hazards and secondly with regards to broader socio-economic issues. Bristol has suffered from significant flooding in the past, with the floating harbour and low-lying city centre being identified as key areas vulnerable to tidal, fluvial and groundwater flooding. The flood of 1968 was one of the most significant and damaging flooding events in the city, caused by both surface water and fluvial flooding that resulted in high damages and impacts to the city and its inhabitants. The construction of large interceptor tunnels in response to this, to divert exceedance flows higher up in the catchment, reduced fluvial flood risk in the city. In 2012, significant flooding occurred across most of the UK due to some of the highest rainfall events since record collection began. During this time, the most notable single flood event lasted two days, with 30 houses internally flooded and many more suffering flooding of gardens, garages and driveways. In order to better manage flood risks in Bristol area, a 'Local Flood Risk Management Strategy' was produced and released in early 2018. The Strategy sets out the Bristol City Council vision for managing flood risk in the city, together with other organisations that have a role in flood-risk management [29]. Bristol City Council has already developed an intensive work towards resilience, and it is proactively committed to increase Bristol's resilience: from social cohesion

to economic stresses and by enhancing resilience to all sources of flooding. The resilience of the city to climate change (CC) can be highly related to its urban services' resilience, their interdependencies and cascade effects. For Bristol, the resilience assessment was undertaken for the flooding hazard related to rainfall and sea level variables, by its importance regarding Bristol resilience to CC.

**Figure 3.** Bristol resilience assessment results for flooding: (**a**) Overall assessment, (**b**) overall assessment per dimension, (**c**) assessment of the objective autonomous electrical energy service, (**d**) assessment of the criterion water service preparedness for disaster response.
