Summer 2009 - Royal Haskoning

2
ROYAL HASKONING’S VIEW
Amy Savage, Senior Engineer within
Coastal & Rivers, comments on the
draft bill and explains some ways in
which those involved will need to
adapt if real improvements are to be
made.
“The technical challenges in relation
to providing improved flood risk
assessments and mapping for all
sources of flood risk are multiple and
will involve local authorities and the
Environment Agency moving into
unfamiliar territory. One example is
the modelling of pluvial, surface water
and groundwater flooding. There will
also need to be significant changes in
the way the various parties involved
in the management of flood risk
communicate and share information.”
Areas of greatest risk
“The Pitt Review recognised that
the greatest need for advances in
understanding and reducing the risk
of flooding and its impact are in those
areas that pose the greatest risk. In
particular, significant depth and
high velocity flooding and flooding
resulting from multiple events. The
mapping of flood hazards is also a
requirement of the new European
Floods Directive. Royal Haskoning has
already undertaken a number of studies
on behalf of both the Environment
Agency and local authorities, which
have used TUFLOW 2D numerical
modelling to identify localised flood
depths and velocities. Challenges to
improving this assessment process
include developing understanding and
building trust in the capabilities of such
models, and in obtaining sufficient
computer processing capacity to run
more complex models.”
Surface water flooding
“Surface water flooding is complex,
with issues such as unclear asset
ownership and the influence of
groundwater. In developing surface
water flood maps, the Environment
Agency, local authorities and their
consultants will need to take care to
avoid giving the impression of greater
certainty in the mapping than there
actually is. Without major investment
in data collection, significant
assumptions will have to be made, such
as individual property threshold levels
and the actual level of sewers. A further
constraint could be obtaining asset
information from the water companies,
who understandably have to protect
their commercial interests. This issue
should benefit from the development
of the Environment Agency’s strategic
overview role for all sources of flood
risk, as well as the requirement of the
Flood and Water Management bill for
the sharing of information.”
Flood warning for urban areas
“The Pitt Review identified a need
for earlier warnings of flooding with
a low probability threshold, and for
real-time mapping and visualisation
tools for use by emergency planners
and responders. The development of
flood warning techniques and systems
to achieve a very quick warning system
for surface water flooding in urban
areas will be a difficult challenge, and
clearly an important area of focus for
the Environment Agency.
Academic research into techniques
such as weather radar as a rapid
assessment tool for the prediction of
rainfall, rather than just measuring
current rainfall is ongoing. Modelling
software is improving to enable
rapid simulations of very responsive
catchments to simulate events such
as occurred at Boscastle in 2004.
Technology is also developing to allow
better use of multi core computer
processors and advanced modelling
procedures such as neural networks,
which self learn from previous
conditions, to speed up simulations.
“The automation of existing flood
forecasting and warning processes
and the improvement of logistics for
obtaining and processing data will
need further investment. Equipment
such as rain gauges, weather radar,
telemetry and computing facilities
are required, as well as training of
personnel to operate and maintain
the systems. A register of flood risk
management and drainage assets
would also aid the development of
improved flood warning systems, but
there is a huge volume of this data.
“Apart from the development of the
actual warning techniques there
will be a big learning curve for other
parties to learn how to best use the
information and disseminate it to the
public. So flood forecasting, warning
and response must be considered
as complete process, with systems
integrated to aid understanding by
all involved. Royal Haskoning has
experience in taking such an integrated
approach through our involvement in
the EU-funded project NOAH, which
has developed processes and tools to
enable the right information to be
made available quickly, clearly and
reliably before, during and after a
flood event.”
Reservoir safety
“Work to identify potential flood
inundation maps is already ongoing.
b i o g r a p h i e s
All our experts bring a wealth of experience to the projects they work on. Below is a quick look at the level of expertise
you can expect from our Coastal & Rivers specialists.
Matt Balkham
Matt Balkham is a chartered Senior
Engineer, a Member of the Institution
of Civil Engineers (ICE) and is currently
leading a team of engineers and
scientists undertaking a variety of
flood risk related projects.
Matt has six years’ experience of
delivering flood risk management
schemes in England and Scotland for
the Environment Agency, the Moray
Council and others.
Matt is currently managing a number
of projects, which include:
l an update of the Culvert Design
Manual on behalf of the
Construction Industry Research
Information Association;
l a study exploring the feasibility of
construction of a new lock within
the Nar Ouse Regeneration Area for
the Environment Agency and
l a flood risk management scheme
for Steeple Bumpstead and the
Environment Agency in Essex.
Contact:
Matt Balkham
+44 (0) 1733 33 6513
m.balkham@royalhaskoning.com
Carina Oliver
Carina is an Associate Member of the
Institute of Ecology and Environmental
Management (AIEMA). She has
expertise in the fields of terrestrial
and aquatic ecology, environmental
input to design, Environmental Impact
Assessments (EIA), protected species
legislation, sustainability assessments
and environmental surveys.
Carina has over seven years’
experience in undertaking EIAs and
working on river engineering projects
within multidisciplinary design teams.
Carina is currently responsible for the
management and co-ordination of
environmental work on several flood
alleviation schemes within Scotland
and England where she successfully
implemented channel restoration
and habitat creation, such as wet
woodland and wetland development
as part of these schemes.
She has experience in consultation
with a diverse range of stakeholders,
from local community workshops and
public meetings to formal consultation
processes with statutory consultees
and government agencies.
Contact:
Carina Oliver
+44 (0) 1733 37 3573
c.oliver@royalhaskoning.com
Dr Mike Walkden
Mike specialises in the effects of
climate change on the coast. He is
a member of the International
Association of Hydraulic Engineering
and Research (IAHR) working group
on climate change and before joining
Royal Haskoning, was deputy leader of
the Coastal Programme of the Tyndall
Centre for Climate Change Research.
Since graduating in 1992, Mike has
worked on various projects relating
to broad scale coastal modelling,
long-term cliff erosion, probabilistic
analysis and uncertainty.
Recently he has worked on a Defra/
Environment Agency funded
project aimed at developing broad
scale coastal modelling capacity to
support coastal management. This
work focussed on the Behavioural
Systems approach to interpreting
and representing coastal systems
which builds models based on the
understanding of geomorphologists
(as opposed to mathematicians).
In this project, he explored how
geomorphic understanding could
be formalised and quantified. He
also coupled broad scale models of
an open coast and an estuary, to
explore their coupled response to
climate change and management
interventions.
Contact:
Mike Walkden
+44 (0) 1392 44 1395
m.walkden@royalhaskoning.com
The Environment Agency’s Reservoir
Inundation Mapping strategy is
assessing the hazard from dam
failure at all 2092 of the registered
reservoirs in England and Wales.
Royal Haskoning has been appointed
by the Environment Agency to model
and map the inundation from more
than 240 reservoirs across the whole
of Wales and the south and southwest
of England.”
Climate change uncertainty
“A key issue for the future management
of flood risk will be dealing with
uncertainties introduced by climate
change. The UKCP09 climate change
scenarios will be available later this
year, and it will be important to
quickly get to grips with using and
applying this data. An improved
understanding of climate and weather
related information will benefit from
the Environment Agency and its
consultants working more closely with
the UK Met Office, and particularly from
the Environment Agency and the Met
Office’s new joint Flood Forecasting
Centre for England and Wales. In the
past Royal Haskoning worked with the
Met Office to investigate a method
to redress the lack of institutional
and operational arrangements to
manage pluvial flooding. The aim of
the ground breaking project was to
provide local authorities with the tools
to make informed decisions on actions
to reduce the impact of pluvial flood
events. More collaborative projects like
this, which develop best practice, will
help to meet the requirements of the
Flood and Water Management bill.”
Providing information
“The Flood and Water Bill requires
improvements to be made to
information provided by the various
parties involved in the flood risk
management process. For flood risk
maps to deliver improved planning,
greater detail will need to be included
in the maps. This information will
also be relevant for the development
of local surface water management
plans, for emergency planning and
development of resilience of transport
and other critical infrastructure and to
educate the public.”
Working together
“Collaborative working with other
organisations will enable the best
data to be obtained, cooperation to
be achieved and savings made on
costs and programmes for flood risk
management projects. For example,
organisations involved in flood risk
management should work together to
improve each other’s understanding
of the different sources of flooding
and their interactions, including the
benefits and limitations of the various
modelling techniques available and
how the model outputs should be
interpreted and applied. A challenge
will be to maintain the responsibility
structure between organisations,
whilst achieving cooperation. The
partnering commitment from the
Environment Agency, local authorities,
IDBs and water companies should
therefore extend to relationships with
the wider community, stakeholders
and other operating authorities.
“Collaborative working with
other organisations will
enable the best data to be
obtained, cooperation to be
achieved and savings made
on costs and programmes
for flood risk management
projects”
range > summer 2009
For further information on how
Royal Haskoning will be working with
the new Flood and Water Management
Bill, contact:
Amy Savage
+44 (0) 1733 33 6522
a.savage@royalhaskoning.com
NEWS
Board of Management
welcomes new member
Royal Haskoning is delighted to
announce that Erik Oostwegel,
Director of Industrial Installations,
has been promoted to the company’s
board of management to lead the
business alongside Chairman Jan Bout
and Director Henry Rowe.
Erik joined Royal Haskoning in 1992 and
became a member of the Management
Council in 2003. The driving force
behind the successful development
of the Industrial Installations division,
Erik holds a strong position within the
engineering industry.
After completing his masters’ degree
in mechanical engineering at the Delft
University of Technology, Erik has held
various positions in Royal Haskoning,
including Director of Knowledge
Information Management in 2003,
Director of Mechanical & Electrical
Services in 2004 and his current role
of Director of Industrial installations,
to which he was appointed in 2006.
Commenting on his appointment, Erik
said: “I consider it a great honour to be
appointed to this new role. It certainly
is a great challenge, not least given
that the current economic climate
requires our full attention, to ensure
that the continuity and profitability of
the organisation is maintained.”
For the time being, Erik will combine
both board management and director
roles.
Erik Oostwegel was appointed to the
Board of Management on 1 May 2009.