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

Floods, surges and droughts. Professor Andrew Tyler, Director for Forth-ERA, on how Forth-ERA is looking at solutions to the threats from water due to climate change.

Contact us

Get in touch with us at forth-era@stir.ac.uk to discuss how our consultancy expertise, teamed with technology, artificial intelligence and data analysis can help your organisation.