The School of Civil Engineering and Geosciences is conducting a study of the flash-flooding that hit Newcastle and the North East on June 28th, 2012.

They aim to gather as much information as possible from photos, eye witness reports and measurements to help them to understand the extent of the flooding around the region, its impacts and how to improve the resilience of the city and its infrastructure to similar events in future.

The study is being carried out by internationally leading research groups in flood risk and urban drainage and transport operations, together with engineers at Newcastle City Council.

A web site has been set up to allow people to upload their photos and comments on a map and this can be accessed at:  http://ceg-morpethflood.ncl.ac.uk/toonflood. This follows on from a similar study carried out after the Morpeth flood of 2008 where valuable lessons were learned and are being put into practice with collaborators in government and industry.

Researchers in the School have been working recently on detailed computer models of flooding in the city which could predict which areas are vulnerable to flooding from extreme rainfall.

A first look comparing these models’ outputs with last Thursday’s events shows they are quite accurate but further information is needed to fully validate the model outputs. This would then allow the models’ reliability to be assessed so they could be used for planning and protection against future events.

published on: 3 July 2012