Surface water forecasting for the Commonwealth Games

Linda SpeightSNIFFER Conference

February 2015

Developing a pilot surface water forecasting tool for Glasgow and operational use during the

Commonwealth Games

SEPA - L. Speight, M. Cranston, A. Tavendale, CEH - R.J. Moore, S.J. Cole,Met Office - B. Golding, C. Pierce, B. Wright, N. Roberts, James Hutton

Institute - S. Ghimire, S. Dunn, Deltares – J. Dhandia

Dr. Linda SpeightSEPA

Scottish Flood Forecasting Service

Glasgow 2002 © GCC

• Existing approaches to surface water forecasting

• Why a pilot in Glasgow?• Technical model set up• Operational use during

the Games• What next?

Background

Existing approaches

Aims & Objectives

• Review emerging science

• Develop a pilot methodology for surface water flood forecasting in Scotland

Operationally useful Integrate with current

SFFS toolsConvective showers May 10th 2014

Summer flooding in Glasgow

July 2002, June 2007, August 2011, July 2012, July 2013

The Commonwealth Games

• High profile event to demonstrate science

• Opportunity to share resources / knowledge

• Strategic Flood Risk Assessment for Games identified flooding as a risk

• Well established network of responders

Steering Group

• Provide input, advice and data

• Advise on existing models and mapping

• Inform on what alerting mechanisms would be beneficial

• Provide link between project and responder community

Technical set up

Methodology

FEWS Glasgow

Operational use

SFFS Games Operations

BriefingBriefing

BriefingBriefing

Met Office Meteorologist

Met Office Meteorologist

SEPA National flood forecasting hydrologist

SEPA National flood forecasting hydrologist

Wider resilience and responder community in

Glasgow

Wider resilience and responder community in

GlasgowFlood AlertFlood Alert

National FGS

National FGS

SEPA Games flood forecasting hydrologist

SEPA Games flood forecasting hydrologist

SEPA Resilience Officer

SEPA Resilience Officer

Games Multi Agency Control

Centre

Games Multi Agency Control

Centre

Glasgow DSWFF

Glasgow DSWFF

Forecasts during the Games

Launch weekend 19th – 20th July

HRA Probability of greater than 20mm in 3 hours

18/07/2014 16:30 GMT

18/07/2014 21:30 GMT

19/07/2014 03:30 GMT

TransportPeople & Property

19/07/201409:32 GMT

19/07/201415:27 GMT

TransportPeople & Property

Final weekend 2nd – 3rd AugustProbability of > 20mm in 3 hours

Conclusions

Success and future development

• Actively addressed the challenge of surface water flooding

• Linked science and operational needs• Real time inclusion of impacts• Learnt about the importance of

communication

How can we extend this to other areas in the future?

Responders were ‘hanging on every

word (of the forecast) when the weather

turned and the forecasts were pretty

accurate’.

What next for Scotland?• Development of heavy rainfall alert

tool

• Reviewing how we deal with large data volumes in our system

• Working on improving best practice in communicating uncertainty

More information:SFFS Blog: www.floodforecastingservice.netStage 1 project report: http://www.crew.ac.uk/publications/ (final report in progress)Journal Paper: submitted to Journal of Flood Risk Management

SFFS Blog: http://floodforecastingservice.net/2014/07/14/operational-surface-water-flood-forecasting-model-for-glasgow-now-live/CEH blog: http://cehsciencenews.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/surface-water-flood-risk-forecasting-glasgow-commonwealth-games.htmlSEPA view: http://www.sepaview.com/2014/07/new-surface-water-flood-forecasting-tool-benefits-glasgow-and-the-commonwealth-games/ HEPEX blog: http://hepex.irstea.fr/developing-a-pilot-surface-water-flood-forecasting-tool-for-glasgow-and-operational-use-during-the-commonwealth-games/Stage 1 project report: http://www.crew.ac.uk/publications/surface-water-flood-forecasting-urban-communities-reviewSEPA Flood forecasting and warning strategy: http://www.sepa.org.uk/flooding/idoc.ashx?docid=694c7071-519d-4967-835d-9bd087c18d64&version=-1Speight, Cole, Moore, Pierce, Wright, Golding, Cranston, Tavendale, Dhondia, Ghimire (2015) Developing surface water flood forecasting capabilities in Scotland: an operational pilot for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Journal of Flood Risk Management. Submitted

Full References