Government seeks input on flooding review: got an opinion?
The Cabinet Office has set up a “Flooding Lessons Learned Review” site, where you – yes, you, the citizen in front of the computer screen – can comment in a helpful way, one hopes, to prevent this summer’s floods repeating.
The terms of reference says that the “specific objectives” are (emphasis added here):
- To understand why the flooding was so extensive.
- To learn lessons on how in future we can best predict, prevent or mitigate the scale and impact of flooding incidents in a potentially changing environment.
- To look at how best to co-ordinate the response to flooding in future, including the significant social implications for communities.
- To establish what access to support, equipment, facilities and information is needed by those involved in the response at local, regional and national levels.
- To ensure the public has as much access as possible to information on the risk of flooding to allow them to take appropriate precautions, be adequately informed on developments as an emergency unfolds, and be looked after properly in the immediate aftermath.
- To establish how the transition from response to recovery is best managed.
- To identify those aspects of the response that worked well and should be promoted and reinforced.
- To make recommendations in each of these areas to improve the UK’s preparedness for flooding events in the future.
- To make recommendations, drawing on the experience of the flooding incidents, to improve the UK’s broader ability to manage the loss of essential services in any future emergencies.
We’ve already commented on how the Environment Agency restricts access to its flood data – a fact that is complicated, we now learn, by the fact that although the EA is a government-appointed agency, its data is not crown copyright (because it may have to sue government departments, which are “owned” by the Crown, and the monarch can’t sue him/herself. Follow that?) So not only would the Free Our Data campaign have to get trading funds reversed, it would have to get agencies paid by government to put their data under crown copyright. Honestly, it’s one step forward and one back.
Notwithstanding, it would make a lot more sense if the flood map data was simply available to everyone to use and even improve upon. We’ll suggest that in the flood review. You’re welcome to add your own comments on the Flooding Review site.
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September 6th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Having free access to UK Meteorological Office rainfall radar WITHOUT time lag would go along way to allowing potential victims of flooding to monitor rainfall over their region/river catchment area, thus giving them forewarning of the potential for flooding.
Currently, radar is provided on a commercial basis to re-sellers who then provide the data to the public on a subscription basis. UKMO radar scans on a five minute cycle. However, the data released to the public is deliberately delayed by up to 20 minutes. In this time a thunderstom may have developed and have begun producing torrential rain not far away to soon be over a persons location, whilst the “latest” released data indicates no rainfall in the vicinity.
Similarly, the expeditious release of observation la data collected hourly by meteorological stations around the UK and from atmospheric soundings made by radiosondes attached to weather balloons. Sounding are essential for forecasting if and where thunderstorms are likely.
Similarly, greater forewarning of potential severe weather and related problems such as flooding could be greatly improved if the UKMO released free of charge the output from its global, regional and mesoscale numerical forecast models (including but not limitied to output from Unified Global Model, North Atlantic and European Model and Mesoscale Model). Currently, this model output is used internally to make forecasts for the UK and around the world, but aside from a limited amount of data released for the Global Model, this information is only provided on a commercial basis to third parties.
Ditto, the forecast guidance bulletins that are issued by the Chief Forecaster describing in detail the reasoning behind the forecasts, interpretation of moel output, uncertainties in the forecasts and the potential for severe weather.
The current policy of limiting the availablity of meteorological information for the UK should be compared to the USA where detailed forecasts, information and model output are released without restriction on usage, by the National Weather Surface, NOAA, Hurricane Prediction Center, the Storm Prediction Center and other agnecies. Presently those wishing to monitor and forecast the weather over the UK, ironically have to use model output generated by the National Ocean and Atmopshere Administration and National Weather Service (NOAA) in the US. Althogugh the output from their Global Forecasting Model is good, it is a relatively low resolution global model and not as good as the higher resolution model output from the UKMO.
September 7th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Nick, maybe the Americans do have realtime access to lots of free realtime weather data but it didn’t do New Orleans residents much good!!
That said, yes it would be nice if some of the new met tools that are available in Google now could be replicated for the UK….eg free access to weathersat images.
September 7th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
“maybe the Americans do have realtime access to lots of free realtime weather data but it didn’t do New Orleans residents much good!!”
That’s profoundly stupid statement.
Re: weather satellite imagery
Satellite imagery, albeit low resolution imagery, is already available for Europe for free viewing. But since it is collected by a private company EUMETSAT, the imagery is their property and not displayed for free reuse.
Data collected by the UKMO and output from its numerical weather prediction models is another matter. it should made avilabale for free without restriction on its reuse.