Recently, CREW participated in Verture’s Flood Resilience 2026 Conference, held just over a year after the publication of Scotland’s Flood Resilience Strategy. Framed around the Strategy’s core themes of Place, People and Process, the conference provided an important opportunity to reflect on progress and collectively shape what comes next. Across plenary and breakout sessions, discussions explored flood risk management, coastal erosion, mental health impacts, community engagement and the need for collaboration across sectors.
In the opening plenary, Gillian Martin, Cabinet Secretary for Climate Action and Energy, acknowledged the scale of the challenge ahead and highlighted two CREW projects currently underway:
- Household flood plans in Scotland – applying behavioural learnings to inform best practice and uptake.
- Reducing the mental health and wellbeing impacts of flooding: Informing cross-policy action in Scotland.
Both were later presented during a plenary session, underlining their relevance to policy and practice.
The Household Flood Plans project has already generated significant interest, attracting coverage in Yahoo News UK, Environmental Journal, Glasgow Times UK and NewStartMag prior to its launch, and engaging communities through co-development workshops. Presented alongside the Reducing the Mental Health and Wellbeing Impacts of Flooding project, emerging findings showed how flooding extends far beyond physical damage — shaping stress, behaviour, confidence and long-term wellbeing, and influencing how people prepare, respond and recover.
Together, the projects reinforced a clear message: building flood resilience is not only about infrastructure, but also about supporting people and communities to cope, adapt and thrive. The hopeful and practical framing strongly echoed the wider tone of the conference.
Several of our other CREW projects were also mentioned in plenary presentations, including Dynamic Coast, Marine Habitats and Coastal Erosion and Building Public Health Resilience. We greatly valued seeing these impactful projects highlighted and we appreciated the discussions they sparked with colleagues at our CREW stand.
Image: The CREW stand at Scotland's Flood Resilience Conference in Dynamic Earth. L to R: Amy Cooper (Communications and Impact Officer), Rebekah Burman (Project Manager), Anishka Cameron (Project Manager) and Nikki Dodd (Centre Manager).
Both the Household Flood Plans and the Reducing the Mental Health and Wellbeing Impacts of Flooding project will be published in May. Please visit our publications page to keep up to date.
Main image: Flooding team, post plenary presentation. L to R: Dr Rhian Thomas (University of Glasgow), Dr Fiona Henderson (Glasgow Caledonian University), Rebekah Burman (CREW) and Carol Raeburn (Scottish Flood Forum).