New research published in the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management’s Journal of Flood Risk Management discusses how to reduce flood risk in urban areas. It compares two methods: flood-proofing individual properties, known as property-level adaptation (PLA) and community-scale flood protection (CSFP). PLA is considered better for isolated properties, while CSFP is more economical for high-density urban spaces. The paper suggests that combining both methods could be more cost-effective than implementing a higher protection standard of PLA. The paper also provides a framework to identify the tipping point when PLA measures become more cost-beneficial than CSFP in different urban densities. The paper concludes that this approach can support better decision-making by identifying the most suitable measures to match flood risk levels.