Surface Water Flood Management

Another British summer, another washout! This time, however, we in LPS, and particularly the Local Authorities, were responsible for preventing as well as cleaning up thanks to the new legislation. This has been helped by the release of a new data set from the Environment Agency of run off flood zones. This has been particularly of use in authorities such as Swindon, where the geology is almost entirely clay – albeit a mix of “good” and “bad” clays. When the really bad floods hit the South West, hardly any of the major flooded areas were on a fluvial or tidal flood plain, hence the need for this information on Surface Water Run Off flooding. The release of the OS data has also helped this, as the BGS have now made their data free to use which was based on the 1:50,000 scale maps, and so previously needed royalties to be paid for before release. Also at Swindon is part of a pilot where several authorities have received 2 partly paid for graduate students, specialising in environmental and risk management.

This is, however, in some cases leading to issues around people trying to spend money too soon, believe it or not! – The inspire project will enable us to hold, discover and share all this data freely, so the main aim now is to ensure it is all valid, up to date, and held in an extractable manner. I raise the issue of jumping the gun, as there are also people from DEFRA, HAUC and several others getting on the band wagon. I urge all GI officers to make sure they are aware of what their Emergency Planners, Traffic Managers, and Senior Planners are doing with this data to avoid duplication of effort. Its not too late if this is the first you have heard of all this, and there isn’t much to do, so I suggest you contact them in the order above, and offer your assistance in shared display/supply of data expertise.