EAM7 - Adopting New Methods for Operational Flood Hydrology

This project will explore the barriers to bringing a method from science and into operational practice. We are currently in a project design phase and more project details will be published here in May 2025.

As part of our project design we would like to establish modes of knowledge transfer with our international counterparts and we are requesting your help. If you have information that you think we might find useful we would appreciate you completing our survey. You can find the link below - we will be closing the survey on 28th February 2025.

What we are looking for:

We would like to know about how hydrology is used for planning and decision-making for flood risk management in other nations. In England we refer to this types of hydrology as non-real-time flood estimation. In particular, we would like to know who establishes the processes or sets guidance/regulation for how this should be done in different nations.

If you have knowledge of these processes in your country, or any country, please help us by sharing that knowledge. The questions in the survey will guide you.

Our use of terminology

We appreciate that different nations and organisations may use similar terms to us to mean different things. Here we lay out our use of terminology to help you understand what information we are seeking.

Non-real-time flood estimation is the use of modelling to support decision-making for flood risk management. It can include the production of flood risk maps, understanding the flood risk for new developments/construction, or aiding the design of new flood mitigation measures (e.g. flood walls). Hydrology is typically embedded in this process as part of a modelling chain, with the typical chain composing of:

  • Hydrometry – the collection, processing, and sharing of hydrological observations.

  • Hydrology – methods that translate observations into estimates of potential flooding, for example, peak flows and/or hydrographs for different return periods of flooding.

  • Hydraulics – methods that use hydrology to simulate water moving on the land surface to estimate flood levels or inundation extents.

We use the term real-time flood estimation to refer to flood forecasting.

What we call flood risk management may be referred to using other terms, for example flood protection or as part of wider disaster management.

It may be the responsibility of a national organisation or be the responsibility of regional and local organisations.

We use the term water resources and/or water resource management to refer to typically low- or normal-flow conditions, for example for water quality or managing droughts for water supply and environment/ecological needs.

Whilst flood management and water supply/low flows are distinct and separate activities in England, we anticipate some nations will do things differently, possibly with both non-real-time and real-time flood estimation together, or flood risk management covered under water resource management.

How we will use this information

The information you provide will be viewed by the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme team and compiled into a report. We will make this report available to download via this page. We anticipate this being available in the second half of 2025.

We will also be reaching out to relevant organisations to create links with our international counterparts for the purpose of knowledge transfer and mutual co-operation. This may include the exploring a need/desire for a science-practice special interest group or network.

Please do not identify individuals or provide contact information for anyone other than yourselves in your answers. If you know someone you think we should talk to, we would very appreciate it if you could forward the survey to them and ask them to fill it in themselves.

No personal and identifying information will be included in the report. Any information you provide about yourself will be used only by the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme team for the sole purpose of this project. It will be deleted after the publication of the report or by end of 2025, whichever is soonest. Until that point, you may request details about yourself to changed or removed by emailing fhip@environment-agency.gov.uk

The Survey

If you have information you think we will find useful and consent to sharing it with us for the purposes described above, please complete the survey here: https://forms.office.com/e/RMay6mcq1h(External link)

The survey will close on 28th February 2025.

This project will explore the barriers to bringing a method from science and into operational practice. We are currently in a project design phase and more project details will be published here in May 2025.

As part of our project design we would like to establish modes of knowledge transfer with our international counterparts and we are requesting your help. If you have information that you think we might find useful we would appreciate you completing our survey. You can find the link below - we will be closing the survey on 28th February 2025.

What we are looking for:

We would like to know about how hydrology is used for planning and decision-making for flood risk management in other nations. In England we refer to this types of hydrology as non-real-time flood estimation. In particular, we would like to know who establishes the processes or sets guidance/regulation for how this should be done in different nations.

If you have knowledge of these processes in your country, or any country, please help us by sharing that knowledge. The questions in the survey will guide you.

Our use of terminology

We appreciate that different nations and organisations may use similar terms to us to mean different things. Here we lay out our use of terminology to help you understand what information we are seeking.

Non-real-time flood estimation is the use of modelling to support decision-making for flood risk management. It can include the production of flood risk maps, understanding the flood risk for new developments/construction, or aiding the design of new flood mitigation measures (e.g. flood walls). Hydrology is typically embedded in this process as part of a modelling chain, with the typical chain composing of:

  • Hydrometry – the collection, processing, and sharing of hydrological observations.

  • Hydrology – methods that translate observations into estimates of potential flooding, for example, peak flows and/or hydrographs for different return periods of flooding.

  • Hydraulics – methods that use hydrology to simulate water moving on the land surface to estimate flood levels or inundation extents.

We use the term real-time flood estimation to refer to flood forecasting.

What we call flood risk management may be referred to using other terms, for example flood protection or as part of wider disaster management.

It may be the responsibility of a national organisation or be the responsibility of regional and local organisations.

We use the term water resources and/or water resource management to refer to typically low- or normal-flow conditions, for example for water quality or managing droughts for water supply and environment/ecological needs.

Whilst flood management and water supply/low flows are distinct and separate activities in England, we anticipate some nations will do things differently, possibly with both non-real-time and real-time flood estimation together, or flood risk management covered under water resource management.

How we will use this information

The information you provide will be viewed by the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme team and compiled into a report. We will make this report available to download via this page. We anticipate this being available in the second half of 2025.

We will also be reaching out to relevant organisations to create links with our international counterparts for the purpose of knowledge transfer and mutual co-operation. This may include the exploring a need/desire for a science-practice special interest group or network.

Please do not identify individuals or provide contact information for anyone other than yourselves in your answers. If you know someone you think we should talk to, we would very appreciate it if you could forward the survey to them and ask them to fill it in themselves.

No personal and identifying information will be included in the report. Any information you provide about yourself will be used only by the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme team for the sole purpose of this project. It will be deleted after the publication of the report or by end of 2025, whichever is soonest. Until that point, you may request details about yourself to changed or removed by emailing fhip@environment-agency.gov.uk

The Survey

If you have information you think we will find useful and consent to sharing it with us for the purposes described above, please complete the survey here: https://forms.office.com/e/RMay6mcq1h(External link)

The survey will close on 28th February 2025.

Page last updated: 10 Feb 2025, 10:32 AM