Bristol City Council commissioned a Climate Resilience Strategy and Delivery Plan to achieve climate resilience across its 4,747-hectare property estate by 2030. The estate comprises six typologies and 1,660 fragmented land parcels, presenting significant governance, coordination, and data challenges. The project was led by Project Director Michael Cowdy in collaboration with Avison Young, who led the Zero Carbon Strategy.

Using advanced GIS modelling, the team mapped flood risk, urban heat island intensity, canopy cover, and ecological vulnerability to identify high and extreme climate risk areas across the estate. This evidence-based analysis established a clear spatial and financial baseline for intervention.

A key innovation was the Climate Resilient Estate (CRE) Toolkit, a strategic framework for an integrated digital dashboard. The Toolkit consolidates climate data, enables cross-department collaboration, embeds blue-green infrastructure principles into decision-making, and provides costed, prioritised actions at asset and typology scale.

The strategy shifts the Council from reactive grey infrastructure to proactive, nature-led resilience planning, providing a scalable governance and investment model for long-term climate adaptation.