Perception and Action: Enhancing Urban Flood Resilience

Cyclone Gabrielle and the 2023 Auckland Anniversary Weekend floods that occurred in Aotearoa New Zealand demonstrated an urgent need for targeted strategies for building urban flood resilience. In a pilot study conducted between 2024-2025, we employed an anonymous cross-sectional survey and network analysis, to investigate the interrelationships between the perceptions of flood risk and urban neighbourhood flood resilience for selected residential suburbs in the city of Auckland, New Zealand. This study revealed that many associations monotonically connected perceived flood risk and perceived urban neighbourhood flood resilience, specifically, perception of safety from flooding, trust in local authorities, rainfall worry, distance from flooding source, perceived sufficiency in emergency response, and provision of assistance during flooding. Our study offers novel insights by linking urban residents’ perceived flood risk and perceived resilience, considering cognitive, behavioural, sociocultural or contextual, and geographic mediators using quantitative and qualitative analyses. Informed by these findings, we characterised a Flood Resilience Perception cluster, to inform future policymaking and implementation that is closely aligned with urban resident needs and expectations. This study is part of an ongoing project where we are investigating the transition from perception to action within the Auckland regional context prior to expansion on a national scale.