FloodMap Live system being piloted with UK Cabinet Office

With support of three NERC research grants, development at Loughborough University led to the first live data feed from FloodMap Live being delivered to the Cabinet Office in November 2018. This is currently delivering FloodMap Live for four UK cities – London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester within ResilienceDirect.

While nationwide flood risk maps are available, emergency responders across the UK urgently require a real time, surface water flood risk mapping service to support decision making during emergencies. The FloodMap Live pilot addresses this challenge by delivering street level surface water flood nowcasts and forecasts to emergency response in real time.

The project at Loughborough University has since received a follow-on NERC grant under the UK Climate Resilience programme titled “Unlocking the potential of surface water flood nowcasting for emergency services in a changing climate”. Working with the Cabinet Office, Met Office and London Fire & Rescue Service, the new project will:

• Assess how uncertainties inherent to precipitation nowcasting and forecasting products propagate through to surface water flood modelling
• Identify the most helpful surface water flood risk metrics and visualizations to inform operational decision making by emergency responders

For more information on Loughborough University and FloodMap Live please visit https://www.lboro.ac.uk/enterprise/floodmap-live/