quantifying flood risk  - Isis Project No 4094

A comprehensive British rainfall digital archive in combination with statistical forecasting tools achieves efficient flood management and reduces flood risk to people, property and the environment.

Marketing Opportunity

The rich content of BRDA and the sophisticated statistical modelling tools will be of significant interest to the hydrological, environmental management, civil engineering, and insurance services industries. The BRDA will appeal to Environmental Consultants, in particular where they are required to submit a Flood Risk Assessment including evidence of historical flooding as part of a planning application.

The Oxford Invention

The extreme rainfall pattern, which resulted in an estimated £2.0 billion of damage due to surface water flooding on 20th July 2007, was very similar to British Rainfall for 7th June 1910 and 10th July 1968. Hence Flood Risk Assessments tools need to consider the likelihood of extreme rainfall and refer to historical rainfall data.

Oxford researchers have both developed statistical forecasting techniques and compiled the British Rainfall Digital Archive (BRDA) – a large repository of 102 years of historical rainfall data that supports the decision-making whilst dealing with the management of Flood Risk.  The predictive tools developed by Oxford hugely benefit from BRDA as it comprises datacovering a much longer record than any other UK digital rainfall series. Together they have been successfully used to: 

• Identify areas at risk of surface water flooding
• Provide an alternative to the current approved prediction methods.

Surface water flooding in Oxfordshire due to heavy rainfall. Copyright©Hydro GIS Ltd.

Patent Status

Isis would like to talk to companies interested in commercially exploiting the database and the forecasting tools. Please contact the Isis Project Manager to discuss this further.

Request Further Information: Project Number 4094 - Quantifying Flood Risk