Mott MacDonald helps Environment Agency assess flood risk in Kent
Posted: Tuesday 26th May 2009
Mott MacDonald has been appointed by the Environment Agency to provide flood risk modelling and mapping for Romney Marsh in Kent, UK.
Romney Marsh is a low-lying area on the south coast, some 270km2 in area, including Rye, Dungeness and Hythe. The project will help improve current understanding of tidal flood risk in the region by assessing tidal flood extents, depths, and flood hazard levels. It will include the development of a two-dimensional hydrodynamic model which will be used to determine the flood risk from tidal sources, including overtopping of coastal defences from tidal surges and waves, both now and in the future.
Mott MacDonald will be working closely with the Environment Agency who will be communicating this risk to the public and improving understanding of tidal flood risk within the Romney Marsh community.
Mott MacDonald’s project manager, Sun Yan Evans, explained, “This wide-ranging study will play an important role in informing the Environment Agency’s future flood management plans for Romney Marsh, an area which has suffered from severe floods in the past. Mott MacDonald has been asked to examine the existing tidal flood risk, Areas Befitting from Defences, and how these would respond to flood risk in the future considering the impacts of climate change. This will help the Environment Agency to develop flood management planning, design and maintenance. It will also assist the local authorities in improving Strategic Flood Risk Assessment, as well as understand the impacts related to development and identify flood hazard levels for emergency planning.”
Neil Gunn, Asset System Management Technical Specialist, said: “This work is really important to help us fully understand flood risk in the area and how this may be affected by climate change. It will also help those people currently living in areas at risk to understand that risk so they can prepare in advance for a flood.”
Mott MacDonald’s role on the project includes sea level, tidal and wave analysis, terrain and defence analysis, mapping of flood extents and depths and looking at how factors such as climate change might affect tidal flood risk over time.
