Government support for better flood and drought detection
New £40m Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure will be first UK-wide network focused on understanding the impact of extreme weather conditions on the country.
Peter Kyle, Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, has announced a new initiative to use the latest tech and real-time data to better predict where floods and droughts will next strike the UK.
Photo by Don Lodge
The aim is to help local authorities, the Environment Agency and other relevant bodies tackle the impact of increasingly common extreme weather, in doing so saving lives, homes and businesses. Such weather events cost the UK economy an estimated £740m a year.
Extreme weather can destroy homes and public infrastructure and adversely affect sectors such as farming – all of which can wreak havoc on our communities and mean extra costs for consumers. Droughts, in particular, affect our water supply and ecosystems, harming UK wildlife. Better understanding when such events are likely makes us better able to deal with these harmful impacts.
Yet forecasting the weather isn’t always easy at the best of time and climate change only further complicates the issue, not least because what we consider ‘normal’ and ‘extreme’ now seem to be in flux. Under the new initiative, researchers will use the latest technologies such as sensors and real-time computer monitoring, as well as a huge databank including river profiles. Near real-time monitoring of information such as atmospherics, ground saturation, water movement, abstraction and storage will also be used. Together this will help provide a clearer impression of where and when extreme weather will strike.
The new Floods and Droughts Research Infrastructure will be led by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH). Researchers will be based at sites across the country, in the officers of the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. There will be additional input from researchers at the British Geological Survey, University of Bristol and Imperial College London.
What they find will be shared with key bodies such as the Environment Agency to better steer the UK response to extreme weather. The new infrastructure will also act as a hub for researchers to pursue innovations, their discoveries shared across the world to mark out the UK as a leader in this field.
The new initiative supports wider UKRI projects tackling extreme weather in the UK and abroad, which include a NERC-sponsored project to link the frequency and intensity of storms over Northern Europe using mathematical models that enable more accurate pricing of storm-related risks.
What’s more, the Lisflood-FP computer model developed by the University of Bristol has already helped more than 1m Zambian farmers to insure themselves against drought risk through daily rainfall estimates for the continent of Africa. Another Bristol team has developed Fathom, a spin-out company with an annual turnover of more than £4m, whose work includes protecting infrastructure valued at over $1tn through improved flood risk management here and abroad.
Peter Kyle, Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, says: ‘Flooding and droughts can devastate UK communities, from leaving people stranded, to destroying homes, gardens, roads and businesses, and even claiming lives. With climate change sadly making extreme weather events more common and adding an eye-watering cost to the economy, there is no time to waste in backing our researchers and innovators to ensure we are better prepared for floods and droughts striking.
‘This project will help drive that progress, with dedicated teams using the most advanced tech to crunch data gathered from our rivers and paint a clear picture of its likely impact – using the power of science and tech to keep the public safe.’
Professor Louise Heathwaite, Executive Chair of NERC, adds: ‘Earth’s changing climate means the number of extreme floods and droughts will increase in the UK, impacting homes, businesses and services. But predicting their location and measuring their intensity and impact needs the sort of scientific advances that this programme will bring to overcome the data and analytical constraints that are currently very challenging.
‘The project will transform the way we understand the impact of these events by building a significant bank of data and improving our monitoring capability, and so helping to protect those affected. This is an example of how NERC is responding to climate challenges with research and innovation investments that will accelerate the green economy and deliver solutions to national priorities.’
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