Flood conditions pose a threat to critical Flood Defence and Highways Assets across Gwynedd. The management of these assets during extreme events – both tidal and river flooding – can stretch the council’s resources. To efficiently allocate resources to the areas where flooding is most critical, a network of LoRa-WAN level recorders have been installed at key locations across the county.
Flood Management
Flood gates were installed at Beach Road, Y Felinheli, north Wales as part of Cyngor Gwynedd’s recent coastal flood risk management scheme. To obtain tide level data for Y Felinheli, a DecentLabs GmbH LoRa-WAN tidelevel recorder was installed by YGC – providing real-time tide level data at a relatively low cost. The recorded data was compared to the UK Coastal Monitoring and Forecasting service’s Holyhead’s tidal gauge data, providing a statistical relationship between the tide level at Holyhead and Y Felinheli. The work has allowed the simplification of the flood gate operating procedure, with the forecast level at Holyhead being used as an early warning for Y Felinheli. This simplified process has allowed us to delegate the closing of the gates to the community, where volunteer Flood Wardens take the lead in closing the flood gates. This ensures community buy-in for the scheme as well as providing a financial saving to the Council. The methodology can also be replicated with other and future coastal flood risk management schemes, as well as for fluvial schemes. This methodology is being considered for implementation at other coastal flood protection schemes in Bangor and Porthdinllaen following the success with Beach Road.
Highways Assets
DecentLabs GmbH LoRa-WAN river level recorders have been installed at various key locations across Gwynedd with additional sensors to be installed in the future. A real-time ‘dashboard’ has been developed by Gwynedd’s Information Technology team, with a traffic-lights system allowing officers to see immediately where rivers have reached critical levels. Resources can then be targeted to the areas most at risk, providing a more efficient way of responding to flood incidents.
Three Winning Facts:
- Value for money for the taxpayers and financial saving to the council.
- Simplified the operating procedure allowing for delegation to the community, ensuring community buy-in.
- Methodology can be replicated with other coastal and fluvial flood risk management schemes.
