Harnessing the power of two

Creating a Digital Twin for more accurate flood prediction and flood risk management

Project summary

The Challenge

Flood risk is increasing and traditional methods for monitoring, predicting and understanding flooding must evolve to increase flood resilience.

The Approach

We’re creating a new digital twin for the Humber Estuary, to increase understanding and aid testing of different flood risk management methods.

The Outcome

A new way of working and a new digital twin resource to improve the way society understands, plans for and deals with flooding.

Lead academics

Funded by

Project partners

British Geological Survey

University of Hull

Imperial College, London

University of the West of England, Bristol

Collaborators:

Beverley and North Holderness Internal Drainage Board (BNHIDB)

East Riding of Yorkshire Council (ERYC)

Environment Agency (EA)

Hull City Council (HCC)

South Holderness Drainage Board (SHIB)

Yorkshire Water (YW)

We’re transforming flood forecasting and decision-making

FloodTwin will bring unprecedented accuracy to flood modelling, offering the ability to trial different scenarios in a digital version of the real world.

The Challenge

Flooding is the most deadly and costly natural hazard, affecting societies across the globe. In the UK, the Environment Agency estimates that 5.2m homes and businesses are at risk of flooding. Rising sea levels and climate change are bringing increasing flood risks. It is essential that we have robust models, by which to predict and plan for flood events but also to understand other water-related hazards like landslides, storms and droughts.

The complex interactions between rain, river flow, groundwater and tides, make it difficult to predict and understand flooding. Recent advancements in digital technology, communications, numerical modelling and Earth Observations bring with them opportunities to improve on traditional methods for assessing, monitoring, analysing, forecasting and disseminating water-related hazards.

The full research team

Prof Tom Coulthard Project Lead - University of Hull
Dr Alexander Osborne University of Hull SuDSlab
Dr Anandharuban Panchanathan FloodTwin Post Doctoral Research Associate
Dr Majdi Mansour British Geological Survey

The Approach

FloodTwin is one of five projects to share NERC and Met Office funding from their Twinning Capability for the Natural Environment (TWINE) programme. The programme seeks to harness the potential of digital twinning technology to transform environmental science.

The University of Hull FloodTwin project will focus on the Humber Estuary – a region that is second only to London in terms of flood risk. FloodTwin will build on traditional modelling techniques and draw on Earth Observation data in order to create a new Digital Twin. This will be a dynamic virtual copy of the region that will look like and behave in real-time identically to its real-world partner.

A Digital Twin:

A dynamic virtual copy of a physical asset, process, system or environment that looks like and behaves identically to its real-world partner.

The Digital Twin will build on existing flood modelling systems, include Prof Coulthard’s CAESAR-Lisflood as well as CLIDE model integration. The team will also look to integrate the University of Hull’s campus-wide SuDSlab monitoring system within the Digital Twin.

The FloodTwin team will work closely with stakeholders to build in opportunities to trial different flood risk management strategies in this digital version of the real world.

“This project is a big win and a great opportunity for Hull and the wider region. We’ve been asked to demonstrate how a Digital Twin can help manage flooding and water related hazards in the region – ahead of other areas in the UK.”

Professor Tom Coulthard, Energy and Environment Institute

Key objectives:

Create a pilot Digital Twin for hydrology and flooding – This is tightly coupled to the need to better understand how these different digital components can be incorporated into an integrated digital environment, the standards required for interoperability, and the infrastructure needed to transfer, store, filter and quality-assess these large volumes of data. FloodTwin brings together environmental, computer, instrument and social scientists with statisticians, the Earth Observation community and stakeholders.

Specifically, we will:

Construct a catchment Digital Twin, a virtual model of the physical environment to improve our understanding of catchment water dynamics and enable near-real-time analysis, forecasting, interpolation and alerting.
Develop the digital infrastructure and standards required to move, store and assess and homogenise data, and integrate these with sensor networks, numerical models and analysis.
Integrate a multi-scale environmental observation network focussed on real-time assessment of water movement and partitioning within the natural environment.
Undertake stakeholder engagement in a co-creative approach to DT development enhancing stakeholder ownership and assessing their interaction and use of the DT.

Work packages

We’re creating a new digital twin for the Humber Estuary through four digitally integrated work packages:

Work Package 1 with the integration of Earth Observation (EO) and sensor data

Work Package 2 will focus on a combined ground/surface water model geared towards decision making

Work Package 3 will create a real-time digital hub for assessing, analysing, storing, passing and serving data

Work Package 4 builds stakeholder engagement through participatory workshops and interviews to better understand the real-world application of the Digital Twin in flood risk management and how professional users would engage with its interface.

The Impact

FloodTwin is a pilot project that will transform the way we understand and plan for flood events. This project will build a Digital Twin for water-related hazard forecasting and decision-making for Hull and the East Riding of Yorkshire but the impact will be much more far-reaching. By working closely with regional and national stakeholders, we will ensure that the Digital Twin’s capabilities and outputs meet their needs and can be replicated for other geographical areas. Through our partnership with the British Geological Survey (BGS), we will ensure that the Digital Twin is widely available. The team will also host meetings in order to increase awareness of and access to the Digital Twin.

“The Digital Twin will be a computer model of all the rivers, estuary, rainfall and groundwater in the region – to generate real time predictions of where there may be flooding hazards. But, the Digital Twin offers something more – it allows the users to test out and try fixes and preventative measures to see how flooding may be helped or where resources are needed. For Hull and the East Riding this might mean changing the timing of when flood storage sites and pumps are used to make the management of flooding as effective as possible.”

Professor Tom Coulthard, Energy and Environment Institute

Case studies

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Project summary

The Challenge

The Approach

The Outcome

Lead academics

Funded by

Project partners

We’re transforming flood forecasting and decision-making

The Challenge

The full research team

The Approach

A Digital Twin:

Key objectives:

Work packages

The Impact

Case studies

Building flood resilience

Addressing tidal flood risk

A Living Lab for Sustainable Drainage

Life after cutoff