Working with Zurich Municipal to help improve Thurrock Council’s asset management and response to flood events
The early warnings and data provided by Previsico has improved Thurrock Council's understanding of asset conditions and it's response to flood events.
- £1.1 billionUK flood losses per annum (source: Zurich flood guide)
- 14High risk areas now monitored
The problem
Thurrock Council covers 20 districts in Essex, which includes urban areas such as Grays, Thurrock, Purfleet and Tilbury.
Due to climate change and increased urban development, many UK councils are currently facing costly and disruptive challenges when it comes to maintaining their infrastructure. This is largely due to surface water flooding, which poses a greater risk than coastal or river flooding.
Urban drainage systems can become completely overwhelmed during intense rainfall and affects thousands of roads, properties and essential infrastructure. Councils need to ensure everything runs efficiently and causes as little disruption as possible to residents.
The main issue for councils has been the lack of accessible, accurate, and affordable flood prediction and prevention technologies to help them mitigate these problems.
Previously Thurrock Council had experienced heavy rainfall which caused flooding on roads in low lying routes.
In these areas when excess water ran-off from adjacent land, sediment was washed onto roads. This caused the drainage to overfill, prompting the council to focus on preventing gullies overflowing in these areas.
The council has also been monitoring drainage performance in other high-risk areas, which include properties with vulnerable residents and critical assets like schools.
The solution
As a result of their proactive flood risk management, Thurrock Council signed up to the Previsico Flood Intel Platform available via their insurer, Zurich Municipal.
The council then prioritised 14 high risk areas which have a history of water ingress and flooding issues.
On 1 September 2023, Previsico sent a series of alerts for Chadwell and Tilbury. The Previsico Flood Intel Platform showed an increase of water in certain locations.
Thurrock Council's Weather Warning Group and Emergency Response Team were deployed to deal with the events based on the alerts received from Previsico. The council were already primed for a response based on their knowledge of low drainage capacity in the area.
Both teams provided adequate and speedy responses in highlighted locations, mitigating issues around flooded drainage systems.
Benefits
The Previsico dashboard has allowed key stakeholders to make informed decisions as to when instruct inspection for the duty officers and the wider teams who respond to flood events.
These early warnings have been proven to improve the council's understanding of asset conditions, facilitating proactive maintenance instead of simply responding after an event has already occurred.
Further benefits include:
- Alerts are being used to aid the council’s decision-making process, amplifying response plans and ensuring Thurrock Council can deliver the best solution to mitigate any potential problems.
- Adopting the solution has helped Thurrock Council prioritise certain infrastructure over others – which allows for effective budget reallocation and improved responses.
- By acquiring Previsico’s product, Thurrock Council now has a deeper understanding of how assets are performing.
The alert system enhanced our preparedness in the sense that resources were deployed to appropriate areas and alerts were also sent to specific areas, on top of the generic email sent out to our weather warning group.