1. @flood_network
Ben Ward
Flood Network

2. 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?

3. 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.

4. Some areas aren’t even covered.

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

6. Some areas aren’t even covered.

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

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

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

10. Peak Rainfall Frank Henry Gertrude Imogen Jake Katie
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

11. 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.

12. 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

13. Technology

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

15. Ben Ward
@flood_network