Floods are now the leading cause of disasters worldwide, and their frequency and severity are increasing with climate change. The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (United Nations, 2015) stresses the need to better understand exposure, vulnerability and hazard, and to improve the resilience of cultural heritage. In the Valencian Region, from the Turia flood of 1957 to the DANA of 29 October 2024, this risk has caused casualties and enormous damage to buildings, including historic heritage, both monumental and residential. After the 2024 DANA, nearly 12,000 buildings with some 34,000 affected dwellings were assessed, and around half of them were over 50 years old. The disaster also showed that the flooded area was much wider than prevention plans had foreseen. It is therefore necessary to improve the resilience of buildings and territory, including heritage assets and traditional dwellings.

At the same time, Valencian towns and villages preserve a rich heritage of traditional dwellings that are still inhabited and need periodic rehabilitation. In recent years, regional, national and European grants, such as the Next Generation EU funds, have promoted the rehabilitation and energy upgrading of these dwellings. When these interventions respect heritage values, use compatible, natural and local materials, and keep costs under control while supporting local employment, they become an opportunity to improve the energy performance of buildings, reduce their environmental impact and, at the same time, increase their resilience to floods.

The RE-SIL(I)ENT project builds on the research group’s previous experience. The RISK-TIERRA project (RTI2018-095302-B-I00) developed a methodology to analyse the flood vulnerability of traditional earthen architecture. The RE-HABITAT project (CIAICO/2022/035) analysed 83 rehabilitated traditional dwellings in 52 Valencian municipalities, considering heritage compatibility, energy improvement, environmental impact and real cost. This is complemented by the experience of the Valencian Institute of Building (IVE), a collaborating entity in the project, in damage inspection and in improving the resilience of residential buildings.

RE-SIL(I)ENT proposes to merge these methodologies and tools into a single one, able to assess at once flood vulnerability, compatibility with heritage values, CO2 emissions throughout the life cycle and the cost of interventions. The tool will be tested on real cases in pilot municipalities affected by the 2024 DANA, at least Chiva and Torrent, analysing each building before the DANA, after the damage and after its repair. The results will be used to draft rehabilitation and resilience guidelines which, together with the tool, will be openly available to municipalities, practitioners and users. In short, the project brings together architectural heritage, geology and geotechnical engineering, construction and life cycle assessment to protect traditional dwellings without giving up their values.