ESI joins debate on flood risk and water environment management challenges.

Mark Fermor, Managing Director, was invited to present an overview of the current ‘state of the art’ in managing water resources and flood risk at a meeting on 23 October 2009 hosted by Severn Partnership and attended by local MP’s Owen Patterson (North Shropshire) and Philip Dunne (Ludlow) and the Environment Agency (Richard Bentley, Operations Team Leader).

The meeting focused on the pressing need for increased accuracy of flood risk maps, and some of the challenges involved in reducing flooding as well as improving the river corridor environment and promoting increased river usage for transport and leisure.

Nicholas Blenkarn of Severn Partnership (www.severnpartnership.co.uk) gave an overview of some of the current technical challenges that need to be overcome to achieve the refinements to digital terrain models that are required before more accurate flood risk maps can be produced, and Mark Fermor described how such improvements in accuracy are vital, illustrating through examples how accurate elevation data are used to benefit environmental management of rivers and groundwater as well as preventing damage through detailed assessment and monitoring of water sensitive wetlands, aquatic ecology and other sensitive environmental receptors.

Mark Fermor gave an overview of the current initiatives being taken forward by the environmental industry, particularly through a strong work programme led by the Environment Agency, to which ESI is a contributor.  In broad terms these initiatives address some of the major technical challenges which limit current capabilities, and will over the next few years deliver significant improvements to provide an overall flood risk management capability which is ‘fit for purpose’.

In the photograph from left:  Mark Fermor (ESI), Owen Patterson (MP, North Shropshire), Philip Dunne (MP, Ludlow), Rory Stanbridge (Secretary General of The Survey Association), Richard Bentley (Operations team leader at the EA) and Nicholas Blenkarn (Financial Director, Severn Partnership).