BROADLAND FLOOD EROSION PROTECTION STUDY HELPING THE NATIONAL RIVERS AUTHORITY
The Challenge
The Norfolk Broads contain some 20,000ha of high quality agricultural
land and hence a large number of farmers as well the recreation,
amenity and nature conservation interests for which it is justly
famed. The land is low-lying and subject to flooding, however,
particularly from high tides and surges in the North Sea.
The National Rivers Authority needed to introduce flood prevention
schemes into the area to reduce risk but were faced with a complex
challenge; how to extract the required management information
from a large quantity of environmental and engineering data.
Our Solution
We identified that a GIS (Geographic Information System) was
the only way to combine and analyse the information, in order
to develop a programme for bank protection works based on both
engineering and environmental priorities.
We implemented a GIS solution; data inputs included: Ordnance
Survey 1:10,000 digital raster data, hydraulic results and data
from MIKE11, data from the Anglian NRA Regions REDS database
and their Intergraph GIS system. Other data was captured from
existing maps and survey results. We developed a geographic information
system that could analyse and display the information so that
areas for investment could be prioritised efficiently, transparently
and objectively.