FloodFutures has gathered a strong following across multiple industries and utility companies. The insights it provides helps inform our understanding of flood risk for decades to come.

Here are five reasons why FloodFutures is special.

1. It’s a new kind of flood prediction technology

The FloodFutures flood map was the first of its kind in the UK and internationally. Instead of looking at the past to inform the view of risk, it focuses on the future. Advances in computer performance and flood modelling made this product possible, meeting the reporting requirements for providers of critical infrastructure with unprecedented accuracy.

Supercomputing technology helped us build climate models and simulations of flood data, while advanced 2D flood modelling techniques helped to create the flood maps. Machine learning has been used to automate modelling processes, reduce the error rate and bring efficiency to the quality assurance process. Geospatial tools and secure cloud platforms mean the data can be shared across the web and with field operatives.

2. It’s working to deliver large-scale environmental improvements

Through understanding the consequences of different greenhouse gas emission scenarios, FloodFutures data will send a powerful message about the consequences of not adapting our society to mitigate climate change. It will enable better long-term decisions for infrastructure planning and water resource management, and may also be used to assess the impact on natural systems and design strategies for protecting key sites of biodiversity under a changing climate.

Flood prediction products using FloodFutures data will be able to help with land-use planning, business continuity considerations, water resource management, nature conservation and more. The findings will also support academics in the study of hydrology and climate change.

3. It’s helping to reduce environmental impacts

FloodFutures has been used by Wales & West Utilities to plan their long-term infrastructure decisions. Digging up land to lay gas pipes has a negative environmental impact and considerable cost implications so any technology which can limit the need to do this will help the environment. This technology helps plan changes to the routing of pipelines in full awareness of areas of increased future flood risk and where erosion from floods is likely to cause damage. In the long term, FloodFutures can help nature conservation objectives and inform land-use management. Floods can negatively impact ecosystems and so it can help to identify areas requiring special protection measures both now and in the future.

4. It can scale up to deliver wider benefits

FloodFutures can easily be scaled up to cover other countries internationally. Our tried and tested flood modelling capability can be incorporated with global climate models and used to support developing economies to improve environmental performance and mitigate flood risk. In developed economies where sophisticated climate models exist, the opportunity is even greater across a range of industries.

5. More accurate flood prediction for everyone who needs it

Utility providers, local government, insurers and others can use FloodFutures to make more accurate predictions of flood risk, decades in advance. This will lead to more accurate flood risk predictions for everyone who needs it in the UK and beyond. As flood predictions become more accurate, mitigating measures will also become more effective, helping to offset the effects of climate change around the world. With subsequent flood data being put into the product for decades to come, and as new technology develops and is assimilated, FloodFutures will become an invaluable resource for flood prediction around the world.

To discuss any problems you’re currently facing around climate change and its effect on flood risk, please email our Channel sales Manager, Rob Carling on Rob.Carling@ambientalrisk.com. Alternatively, call us on + 44 (0) 1273 006 966 .

If you would like to discover more about how FloodFutures is helping the utility sector to plan for climate change and to learn what this new data reveals for the future of flood risk in Great Britain then you may be interested in a webinar we delivered, ‘Climate Change & Flood Risk: Impacts and Solutions’. In order to receive a link to the recording of this webinar, please complete the form.