Precision flood models and spatial analysis of flood risk in Great Britain with Paul Drury GIS Data Manager, Ambiental Technical Solutions.

Extreme flooding in recent memory has highlighted the need to better understand flood hazards and to interpret flood risk. Demand for greater accuracy, particularly in the insurance sector, is driving innovation and providing opportunities for flood modelling companies.

Improving floodmap accuracy requires better quality inputs e.g: detailed hydrology data from CEH and high resolution LiDAR from the Environment Agency. Superior datasets, coupled with improvements in computer processing capabilities, have led to unprecedented flood prediction accuracy. Larger, more complex datasets present challenges in terms of data management and interpretation of results. The diverse needs of specific customer groups are met through post processing raw flooding simulation data into various formats, and distribution via multiple channels.

In collaboration with Ordnance Survey through usage of AddressBase™ a flood risk database containing risk ratings for every property in Great Britain has been produced. This provides a basis for much quicker and more accessible probabilistic analyses. Pioneering approaches like property specific Average Annual Loss calculations go beyond hazard mapping and are used to inform catastrophe models. Similar techniques are also being applied internationally in countries such as Australia. Clients in insurance, government, planning and utilities can now better understand spatial variability of flood risk; assisting with development control, risk pricing and specification of property-level flood protection schemes.

Through spatial analysis of this data meaningful insights into the geographic spread of flood risk are possible. This paper describes the pattern of risk across Great Britain, in terms of both potential severity vs. probability and geographical spread.

You can download Paul’s presentation here.

BIOGRAPHY:
Paul has wide-ranging experience of managing technical computing and data build projects in the United Kingdom.
At Ambiental his role includes project management of production operations and reporting back to stakeholders. He also oversees the preparation, integration and quality assurance checking of data assets.
Paul is an expert in GIS and data analysis with a developed understanding of the environmental data industry and underlying technical concepts. He has a BSc (hons) in Environmental Sciences from the University of Brighton.