@flood_network Ben Ward Flood Network

When the floods come the local authorities need Insight to know where it’ll flood, when, and who’ll be affected. to move flood barriers and road closure signs to the right place Where do they look today?

This is part of the Environment Agency’s river gauging network This is part of the Environment Agency’s river gauging network. Each dot is a gauging station on the “main river” network. Looks great, plenty of dots on here, lots of data, right? But zoom in a little closer and you’ll see there are only a few sensors in Oxford.

Some areas aren’t even covered.

Because this is what they use Bulky & expensive. Costs Tens of thousands of pounds and involves civil engineering

Some areas aren’t even covered.

Already making low-cost sensors in Oxford. Orders of magnitude cheaper property-level information on flooding. Sensors installed around the country

We’ve come a long way from our first prototypes Don’t do this

http://map.flood.network Sensors appear on a flood map Levels change according to thresholds Alerts sent to subscription users

Peak Rainfall Frank Henry Gertrude Imogen Jake Katie 29 - 30 Dec 2015 Henry 1 Feb 2016 Gertrude 29 Jan 2016 Imogen 8 Feb 2016 Jake 7 Mar 2016 Katie 28 Mar 2016 The Thames at Oxford is a slow-responding sub-catchment. Rainfall from across the Cotswolds eventually reaches us and levels peak This data shows the delay in peakiness between storms and the levels of the Thames at Oxford

Peak Flow Prepare No, really You can’t stop the flood, but you can prepare for it. You can also smooth out the peaks by managing water higher up in the catchment. By using natural flood management techniques, like woody debris dams, adding meanders, using floodplains for their original purpose, and planting trees you can reduce the peakiness. Rainfall forecasts and observations show where the water’s falling, and hydrological models say when it will reach you You can predict: Emergency response But if you own a dam you can predict: Water supplies Hydroelectric potential Price on electricity market This is IoT, not M2M. Your data has many customers. They are not the ones installing the hardware.

Who’s the Customer? Flood Network Community (Flood Map) Local Authorities Flood Modellers Insurance & Fintech Map Alerts Calibration History Flood Network Crowdsourced Install Flood Network Install 3rd Party Sensors EA NRFA

Technology

Q2 2016 Local authority pilots Individual & flood action group sales Launch: The Things Network Oxford Innovation in Oxford?

Ben Ward ben@flood.network http://flood.network @flood_network