The Environment Agency is planning to invest £5 million on hiring two survey aircraft and associated pilots and services to facilitate its remote sensing survey program through the next 5 years.

The primary tasks of the required survey aircraft are terrestrial and intertidal mapping to be carried out between 1000 and 10000 feet throughout the UK.

The aircraft are required to have an endurance of at least 5 hours although the Agency said a longer endurance would be welcome. Normal operational speed is approximately 130 knots.

However aircraft delivering fast transits will also be required to provide the greatest flexibility especially during any incident response tasks relating to flooding. “Continuous access to aircraft throughout the year is of paramount importance to our survey program and our incident response duties.” the Agency said.

The Agency has a requirement to be in the air within one hour of notification of an incident response flood event. The airfield from which the aircraft are based would need to have 24/7 opening hours to allow for day and night operations.

The aircraft must be able to mount a variety of remote sensing equipment, together with a DSLR format camera to capture photographic oblique's through an aperture such as a DV window. The aircraft will also need to comfortably seat two Environment Agency surveyors on board with all of the survey equipment fitted for the aircraft's endurance. 

Estimated work programs equate to 1000 - 1400 hours per annum total flying.

The Agency expects to go out to formal tender towards the end of December – click here to access the Prior Information Notice