The Evaluation Learning and Innovation (ELI) workstream was established to provide a foundation for sharing ideas, experience and insights across Project Groundwater. 2024 saw the workstream continue to help ensure that ELI was front of mind for everyone.
In Autumn 2024, the Project welcomed McGregor Coxall consultancy to build on the work begun by AxiaOrigin and to begin planning for a Community Resilience Framework.
2024
Developing an Evaluation, Learning and Innovation (ELI) mindset across the Project
As Project Groundwater continued to evolve throughout 2024, helping everyone to develop an ELI mindset – as well as having time and space to reflect on things from an ELI perspective – was key. Creating the conditions to challenge and disrupt thinking remained a key role of the workstream in 2024. The team delivered quarterly workshops throughout the year where high levels of interaction and shared experiences were evident, and a pleasure to see.
A diverse team, rich with learning and best practice to share
Whether knowledge, background or experience, the diversity of Project Groundwater’s team surfaced through the ELI workshops this year. These insights were used to tailor how future ELI topics were explored, ensuring the very best contributions from everyone.
The workstream also began exploring best practice and lessons learnt across the Project, recognising that this wealth of knowledge and learning should be captured, and shared more widely, now, and as part of the Project’s legacy.
Welcome McGregor Coxall!
In September 2024, McGregor Coxall were welcomed to Project Groundwater and commissioned to develop a Community Flood Resilience Framework, supported by measurable indicators. The aim of the Framework is to help measure communities’ resilience to groundwater flooding and to demonstrate how interventions may improve their resilience over time.
The Framework will collate existing data, research, and practice into an easy-to-use tool. Users, which could include communities or local decision makers, will be able to easily identify which aspects of a community require support, or funding, to improve their resilience.
The work to develop the Framework has been split into three phases:
Step 1 Discovery: Developing a Community Flood Resilience framework supported by measurable indicators.
Step 2 Evaluate: Evaluating / Scoring a community’s resilience to groundwater flooding using the framework system and indicators, using maps to show various aspects.
Step 3 Socialise: Developing an interactive dashboard to help visualise a community’s resilience.
In 2024, the team made significant progress on Step 1: exploring the different ways that community resilience is defined; creating a working definition of resilience to guide the project; and reviewing existing tools used to measure resilience in various industries.
The team developed a framework system, drafted a list of indicators, and carried out a gap analysis. The emerging Community Resilience Framework is built around five key areas, or "Capitals," representing the different elements that contribute to a community's resilience to flooding. A draft version of the Framework was shared with the whole Project team at the Annual Project Groundwater Summit in October. The feedback received, and from other stakeholders, will help to shape next steps.
The team continued to work closely with other Project Groundwater workstream leads in order to gather new insight and to integrate the framework into the Project as a whole.
Exploring Community Flood Resilience Frameworks
est minim
Minim eu laboris.
laboris qui
Enim elit laboris sunt minim sit. Adipisicing fugiat dolore.
quis ut
Quis aliqua proident. Aliquip ad Lorem labore id. Irure culpa veniam esse.
2025
2025 will see McGregor Coxall moving on to the next phases of work on the Community Resilience Framework: Step 2 on Evaluation and Step 3, Sharing the results.
Step 2: Evaluate
In 2025 the team will start assessing community resilience using the framework, indicators, and data developed in Step 1. They will specifically be focused on:
Refining the Indicator List: Gathering feedback from Project Groundwater teams to prioritize and finalize the indicators, and clarifying who will be responsible for collecting, organizing, and tracking the data.
Creating a Scoring System: Defining performance levels for each indicator so that scores can be assigned and progress measured.
Understanding Community Values: Collaborating with the Engagement & Communications workstream to involve communities in identifying their values and priorities
Mapping Resilience: integrating, where possible, the indicator data into a spatial database to create maps that show resilience levels across different areas
Analysing Data: Starting to evaluate resilience for indicators where data is available, and looking for ways to fill any gaps.
Working Together: Continuing to collaborate with Project Groundwater teams to share ideas
Improving Along the Way: Keeping track of what works and what could be better as we refine how we collect and use data, assign scores, and present our findings.
Step 3: Socialise
Once the evaluation is completed, we will consider how best to share the results. This might include:
- Building a Digital Dashboard: Creating an interactive tool to display real-time data and insights from the evaluation.
- Visualizing Resilience: Using maps and visual tools to show how resilience varies across different areas.
- Learning and Improving: Identifying areas that need further research or development and keep improving our methods based on what we’ve learned.
Developing learning and best practice – a lasting legacy
Developing learning and best practice outputs for the ELI workstream will be a key activity for AxiaOrigin in 2025 and will directly support Project Groundwater’s legacy strategy.
Their work will include capturing best practice and lessons learned for planning and delivering impactful workshops on ELI topics, developing effective indicators and nurturing a culture of innovation through innovation leadership.
Find out more about Project Groundwater
