HUMBER ESTUARY SHORELINE MANAGEMENT PLAN
Helping to develop a long-term strategy for the flood
defence of the Humber Estuary, one of the biggest challenges
in river and coastal management in the UK.
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The challenge
The Environment Agency needed Information Technology with
which to define and monitor management of flood defences covering
800 square kilometres around the Humber Estuary. The UK’s
Environment Agency (EA) employed BVCs to lead a consortium
to develop a Shoreline Management Plan (SMP) for the Humber
Estuary. The work carried out involved an environmental baseline
study, collecting a diverse set of baseline data for the estuary
and developing a GIS-based management system.
Our solution
Black & Veatch customised GIS software to support the
decision-making and production of high quality maps. By performing
computer modelling of sea-level rise, flood risk and geomorphological
change; an interactive environmental “atlas” of
the 800km2 study area with dynamic map building tools was
developed. Using GIS to visualise complex interactions between
estuary processes, flood defence, economic development, and
land use; a system was delivered for the efficient management
of very large amounts of data, pinpointing areas of concern
and investment. This system used GIS to manage over 235km
of existing flood defences and during the process 1GB of
environmental, social and economic data was collected, cleaned
and managed to provide a solution.