Introduction to Flood Hydrology

The Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme has been developed to improve the way we do flood hydrology within the Environment Agency.

Hydrology is the science of water on land or below it. Hydrologists want to know how it moves and how it is stored, as well as its properties, including its temperature and whether it is polluted or not.

Sometimes, especially after lengthy periods of wet weather, there is an unusually high amount of water around and this can cause flooding. Flood hydrology is the collection of knowledge, data, and tools used to help us predict when flooding might happen, helping us plan and prepare for it.



Flooding can happen for many reasons. Some of them may not involve hydrology at all, including flooding from the sea and flooding from burst water pipes. However, flood hydrology is useful for the most common and most damaging types of inland flooding.

The Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme is covering the four main types of inland flooding: river flooding (fluvial), groundwater, surface water (pluvial), and reservoir flooding. As each causes flooding through different processes, we use different flood hydrology approaches for each.

These different types of flooding can happen at the same time in the same place and planning and preparing for this can be complex and extremely difficult. We are working on better ways to use our approaches together to do this better.

The Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme has been developed to improve the way we do flood hydrology within the Environment Agency.

Hydrology is the science of water on land or below it. Hydrologists want to know how it moves and how it is stored, as well as its properties, including its temperature and whether it is polluted or not.

Sometimes, especially after lengthy periods of wet weather, there is an unusually high amount of water around and this can cause flooding. Flood hydrology is the collection of knowledge, data, and tools used to help us predict when flooding might happen, helping us plan and prepare for it.



Flooding can happen for many reasons. Some of them may not involve hydrology at all, including flooding from the sea and flooding from burst water pipes. However, flood hydrology is useful for the most common and most damaging types of inland flooding.

The Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme is covering the four main types of inland flooding: river flooding (fluvial), groundwater, surface water (pluvial), and reservoir flooding. As each causes flooding through different processes, we use different flood hydrology approaches for each.

These different types of flooding can happen at the same time in the same place and planning and preparing for this can be complex and extremely difficult. We are working on better ways to use our approaches together to do this better.

Page last updated: 07 Feb 2023, 02:18 PM