Flood Hydrology Roadmap
The UK’s Flood Hydrology Roadmap is designed to safeguard communities, infrastructure, and natural environments from the escalating risks of flooding.
Recovering from winter floods 2015-2016, York. Image credit: Environment Agency.
Flood Hydrology Roadmap
Sean Longfield1, Sue Manson 1 and Anita Asadullah 1
1 Environment Agency, United Kingdom
The UK’s Flood Hydrology Roadmap, led by the Environment Agency, was published in 2022. It charted a course from 2021 to 2046 to guide the UK towards a more resilient, scientifically driven, and collaborative approach to improve flood hydrology.
The roadmap emerged in response to several strategic drivers. Flood hydrology underpins investment decisions across flood and coastal risk management, with an estimated £6 billion of investment in the UK planned between 2022 and 2028. This, combined with a need to support the implementation of flood risk management strategies across the UK required a new long-term vision and direction for flood hydrology.
In response, the roadmap provided a UK-wide plan of action to improve ways of working, data, methods and scientific understanding in hydrology so that risk information was robust and could continue to support activities for safeguarding communities, infrastructure, and natural environments from the escalating risks of flooding. It considered all inland flood sources—rivers, surface water, groundwater, and reservoirs across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
The roadmap for UK flood hydrology. Image credit: Environment Agency.
Impact
The roadmap’s vision for the next 25 years is that society will have improved hydrological information and understanding to manage flood hazards in a changing world; flood hydrology and whole-system process understanding will be underpinned by excellent evidence with quantified uncertainty. Leadership and collaboration are crucial to achieving this vision. It aims to bring new science into operational practice, developing the next generation of methods to increase flood resilience and adaptation to a changing climate. The roadmap’s success will be underpinned by cohesive action and gaining funding, estimated between £110 and £165 million over 25 years to 2046.
The Environment Agency secured £6 million over 6 years to start delivering on the roadmap and established the Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme (FHIP). Through FHIP, the Environment Agency made the sub-daily flow and rainfall data publicly available which enabled valuable research into flood periodicity to be conducted. Another outcome was addressing gaps in hydrometric data through a project that preserved significant amounts of data. In addition, it enabled a UK-wide skills survey providing information on the state of the hydrological expertise in the UK. FHIP is leading on a benchmarking process for hydrological models, making it possible to appraise and bring new scientific methods into practice.
The roadmap, with support from FHIP, has also enabled experts to work together more effectively. This included setting up a flood hydrology scientific and technical advice group.
Rob Lamb, JBA Trust director and member of roadmap steering group (2022) said:
By bringing together the views of scientists and practitioners from a wide range of disciplines and sectors, the roadmap advances flood hydrology both as a technical discipline and as a profession. It is a landmark report that will shape hydrology and flood management for years to come.
The strategic direction is overseen by a governance board, which uses the roadmap to guide activities, coordinate action and share knowledge. It also reinforces opportunities for collaboration across organisations.
Cordelia Menmuir, Senior Manager Hydrology and Flooding for Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Chair of the Governance Board (2025) said:
It is a privilege to be able to Chair the Governance Board that oversees such a talented and passionate group of individuals all working towards the same common goal. Moving forward we are actively seeking out new ways to facilitate the involvement of any individual or organisation who believes they have something they can offer, and I would encourage all those who work in hydrology to consider contributing.
Andrew Wall, National Flood Risk Services Manager at Natural Resources Wales (NRW) (2025) said:
We have welcomed the opportunity for agencies across the UK to come together to review flood hydrology and develop a roadmap for future improvement to our data and techniques. NRW is looking forward to continuing to work alongside our partners in this important effort and playing a key role in the development and delivery of the vision for flood hydrology across the UK.
Resources
British Hydrological Society. (2022). UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap and Flood Hydrology Improvements Programme. Available at: https://www.hydrology.org.uk/Flood_Hydrology_Roadmap.php (Accessed: 25 March 2025).
Environment Agency. (2021). Flood hydrology roadmap. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/flood-and-coastal-erosion-risk-management-research-reports/flood-hydrology-roadmap (Accessed: 25 March 2025).
Environment Agency. (2025). UK Flood Hydrology Roadmap - Engage Environment Agency. Available at: https://engageenvironmentagency.uk (Accessed: 25 March 2025).
Lamb, R., Longfield, S., Manson, S., Cloke, H., Pilling, C., Reynard, N., Sheppard, N., Asadullah, A., Vaughan, M., Fowler, H.J. and Beven, K.J. (2022). The future of flood hydrology in the UK. Hydrology Research 53(10): 1286-1303. Available at: doi.org/10.2166/nh.2022.053 (Accessed: 25 March 2025).
Funder
The research project was funded by the Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management (FCERM) research and development programme.
Collaborators
- A community derived project with around 50 organisations from public sector, industry and academia, now governed by the Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency, the Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland, British Hydrological Society and UK Research and Innovation. For a full list of contributors see the report.
Research period
- 2018 to 2022
Impact period
- 2021 to 2046
Impact country
- England
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
Contributing to areas of research interest
- 1 - Understanding future flood and coastal erosion risk