Flood management

Protecting people and property from flooding

In 2021 flooding represented the largest extreme weather peril by economic loss, costing the global economy a monumental $105bn. The increased frequency of storm events and tidal surges constitute a major threat to communities across the world; approximately 1 in 5 people are exposed to water depths greater than 150mm (around 6 inches) during a flood event with a 1% chance of occurrence each year. The reality is that these events are becoming more frequent, and water managers and communities must be better prepared to respond.

Key challenges

The challenge of understanding, anticipating and managing extreme weather and flood events has always been complex. However, our resilience has never been tested so frequently and our margin for error never so slim. To protect communities, water managers need adaptable and robust systems, capable of connecting weather and water data, modelled intelligence, and local knowledge, to inform decision making and to:

• Improve resilience: flood warning systems are not new, but they are being tested to their limits. There is need to improve the operational efficiency of current warning systems and reduce the risk of late or missed warnings.
• Empower communities: many areas do not benefit from flood defenses, instead relying on property level protection. Finding adaptable methods of providing flood warning will ensure people can protect themselves and their properties.
• Benefit from data: Hydrometry and telemetry underpin many decisions taken by flood management professionals. Understanding where to place sensors to maximise potential or how to benefit from innovative data sources e.g. remote sensing data is critical.
• Enable research: Nature-based solutions to combat climate change are becoming common place. Monitoring can help decision makers better understand the impact of natural flood management to support future investment.
• Learn lessons; using the best available information, we need to reduce the time it takes to recognize the impacts of flooding and learn lessons.

HydroNET flood management solutions:

• Can provide alerts, warnings and trigger actions automatically and remotely ensuring you are informed of the potential risks, wherever you are.
• Unlocks data boundaries, allowing users to connect data systems, flood models, weather and climate data, telemetry and radar / satellite information to provide an incredibly adaptable picture of flood risk.
• Can be tailored to your specific needs, integrating with existing systems or developing alongside an emergency response plan.
• Adds context, allowing you to better understand and visualise the impact of current and predicted flooding.
• Can be used in post-event analysis, helping organisations learn lessons from previous floods quicker and cost-effectively.
• Ensures that organisational intelligence embedded within the platform, delivering greater resilience when key staff are absent or leave.
• Is flexible when your understanding of an issue shifts, such as allowing you flexibility to change thresholds for alerts quickly
• Supports cooperation across boundaries and organisations in responding to flood risk and directing support where it is needed most.
• Can help asset managers make informed decisions in response to an evolving situation.

Impact numbers flood management