Flood Resilence
Description
We consistently delivers technical and organizational expertise that fosters innovative and economical solutions to the management of flood risk and the protection of people, infrastructure, and property from the effects of coastal, river, and urban surface water flooding. This is managed in adherence to the strict environmental regulatory requirements, the Office of Public Works Flood Risk Policy, the EU Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive. We provide a full suite of engineering services for planning, design, and implementation, establishing best practices in the areas of:
- Catchment Management – Hydrological Assessments
The Water Framework Directive (2000) is a combined high-level focus on river basin catchment management and use from catchment drainage, groundwater, riparian uses, and effluent discharges from agricultural, commercial and industrial sectors to urban run-off and water abstraction. Our services include catchment area determination, low-flow analysis, receiving waters assimilation capacity assessment for discharge licenses, water quality monitoring, hydrometric analysis, and determination of run-off from ungauged catchments.
- Flood Risk Assessment and Management
The Planning System and Flood Risk Management Guidelines for Planning Authorities (2009) were established to ensure that, where applicable, flood risk is a key consideration in preparing development and planning applications to avoid increasing flood risk to new and existing developments.
- River Engineering and Hydraulic Modelling
A key technical input for detailed flood risk assessment is the development of a computer model of surface water and river channel systems within the catchment. Hydraulic Modelling of a river system involves the input of physical properties of the river channel and bank side area, tributaries, and in line structures such as weirs and bridges combined with established hydrological flow data to determine the hydraulic performance of the river system.
- Flood Defence Design
We have designed flood defence systems for a number of diverse projects. When it is established that flooding waters cannot be contained within the channel system and modifications to the river system are not sufficient or feasible, it is necessary to construct a barrier to the flood waters to protect the areas at risk. The level of flood defence solutions available range from earth embankments, wall retention, and bypass culverts, to demountable barriers and storm water pumping cells.
- Climate Change
Climate change predictions indicate an increase in the frequency and intensity of rainfall events and a reduction in flows for river systems that will impact water abstraction availability. This can lead to an increase in both flash flooding and river and coastal flooding due to rising sea levels. The impact of climate change must be considered in flood defence design to determine the levels of protection needed both now and in the future.
Our range of engineering and technical services include:
- Master planning
- Technical and economic feasibility studies
- Environmental impact assessments
- Project development planning
- Risk management assessment
- Optioneering of alternative designs
- Conceptual and detailed designs and documents
- Quality management
- Training and capacity building
