UKCEH state-of-the-art hydrological models and tools are used for real-time flood forecasting from hours to seasons ahead and at national and local scales. We work collaboratively with stakeholders to develop and support flood forecasting and warning systems, and innovate with them to create new services and solutions such as real-time flood risk and impact forecasts.
The Flood Forecasting Centre (England and Wales) and Scottish Flood Forecasting Service use our models to inform the Flood Guidance Statements they provide to the emergency response community. Our models also support the flood warnings sent to the public and businesses by the Environment Agency (EA), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA).
Case study: Forecasting surface water flooding for the Commonwealth Games
UKCEH, in collaboration with the Met Office, the James Hutton Institute and SEPA, developed an award-winning novel real-time system for forecasting surface water flooding and its potential impact. The system was piloted by the Scottish Flood Forecasting Service during the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and found to be very useful in alerting the Games organisers and emergency responders to the localised flooding events that occurred during the Games. A similar approach, developed collaboratively under the Natural Hazards Partnership initiative, is now in national operational use by the Flood Forecasting Centre.
Product: HYRAD
HYRAD is an advanced system for the receipt, processing, display and archiving of real-time radar rainfall and other observation and forecast products. Processing tools include merging of radar and rain gauge data, assessment of storm rarity (using the FEH13 method, as required by OFWAT), forecasting of rainfall, calculating catchment averages and statistical analysis of products.
HYRAD has a wide user-base, including government flood warning agencies across the UK and Belgium, and is an integral part of several flood-forecasting systems. Water company use includes real-time and post-event analysis of flood and pollution events, predicting bathing water quality, hydraulic model verification and managing maintenance operations.