Objectives:

AUDACIOUS focuses on flooding that is caused by a lack of capacity or hindrance (e.g. blockage) of the urban drainage system, rather than inundation of buildings on river flood plains due to overland flows from major watercourses. The focus is on adapting existing systems, but will consider new build and is envisaged to link with the other primary areas - interaction of urban floods with other urban infrastructure (e.g. transportation, communications, buildings) and to tackle some of the many cross-cutting issues (e.g. socio-economic implications, stakeholder perception, planning, insurance risk and land development).

Within this context, the objectives of AUDACIOUS are:

• To set out a clear picture for a range of stakeholders of the scope and interactions between the likely problems caused to the performance of existing drainage systems due to climate change and the wider urban catchment. To provide new procedures, computer models, and appropriate (targeted to particular users) guidance (toolbox) to facilitate the assessment of climate change impacts and the development of mitigating responses for building and local drainage systems.

• To enable and demonstrate the integration of the models and procedures with the behaviour of, and within, the wider context of drainage and urban systems.

• To establish the baseline procedures for evaluation and mitigation of the effects of climate change on existing urban drainage and to disseminate these widely.