Climate extremes

Improved monitoring and forecasting of floods and droughts.

The impact of climate change is being felt in Scotland, and globally with increased heat, flooding and droughts. 

Objectives

• Provide real-time flood data to support flood and drought alerts.
• Develop a hydrological model of the Forth river and estuary for flood prediction and scenario testing.

Using the Forth Valley region as a test-bed and the skills of data scientists and state-of-the-art technology, data is enriched not only by its frequency in real or near-real time, but its ease of analysis with visualisation tools.

Technical innovations

• A high-resolution X-band rainfall radar to be sited at Forth Valley College, Alloa. This raises the bar when it comes to precision and reliability – outperforming conventional rain gauge networks with detailed and localised weather detection.
• A breakthrough Delft3D FM hydrological and hydrodynamic model of the Forth which includes not only the coast but follows the river and estuary.
• Local weather stations
• RiverTrack