The maps are amongst the most comprehensive ever assessment of the likely impact of surface water flooding in 20 cities around the UK. Unlike traditional surface water flooding maps, which are purely rainfall based, the maps assess the causes and true impact of surface water flooding on communities. In the 2007 UK floods, which caused £3.2 billion of damage, around two thirds of the flooding involved surface water.

Nine London boroughs, and the cities of Bristol, Liverpool and Swansea, are among the 20 UK cities that were mapped. A surface water flooding map was also created for Barcelona in Spain.

The ‘Mapping the Extent of Pluvial Flooding’ project was undertaken by 14 environmental water management MSc students at Cranfield University in Bedfordshire.

The project addressed a broad range of factors that affect surface water flooding using information gathered by contacting regional fire departments, local authorities, government agencies and news media. It also looked at new ways of monitoring and reporting information about flooding. The project’s key outputs include:

• the creation of high quality surface water flooding maps using Halcrow’s modelling software, ISIS FAST
• a prototype data system which captures and stores flood data
• a social networking strategy and tool bank for stakeholder organisations and the public to report surface water flooding incidents
• setting up  a flood visualisation tool, FloodViewer, developed by Halcrow, to make it easier for the stakeholders to access the new maps and transport them using just a USB stick or via a website
• assessing a range of surface water flooding incidents in five other countries

Halcrow project manager Kostya Vasilyev, who worked with the students throughout the 10 week project, said that the flooding maps would have cost at least five times as much to produce by Halcrow staff. 

“The speed and high quality of research undertaken by the students means that communities will benefit much more quickly from the new maps and systems“, he said.

Halcrow’s director for flood, coastal and environmental management  Richard Crowder said:

“The project’s findings will allow us to provide evidence of our local knowledge and demonstrate our understanding of the flood risks in the bids we submit to potential clients. This was the first time Halcrow has sponsored a group project at Cranfield University. This proved to be an effective way of strengthening our links with Cranfield University.”