Our Work
Project Groundwater has seven workstreams. Together, these are designed to deliver our vision of forever transforming how communities prepare and respond to groundwater flooding.
We believe that understanding the communities we are supporting, and making them integral partners to our work, is critical. Each workstream therefore seeks to work with communities in everything we do, whether that’s helping us to map local groundwater, testing our new alerts system, creating new ways to prevent groundwater reaching houses, or looking at.
Project Groundwater team at a Co-Working day
Workstream:
Engagement and Communications
Aim: To engage with communities and businesses across the pilot areas to ensure that the solutions developed are collaborative and accessible. This will increase understanding of groundwater flooding and ensure that the outcomes of the project are guided by the needs and wishes of our communities.
Workstream:
Monitoring
Aim: To understand and improve the monitoring of groundwater levels which could lead to flooding. This knowledge will help us understand groundwater flood risk in the Chiltern Hills and Berkshire Downs, support our modelling workstream and allow the project to find innovative solutions to managing groundwater flooding.
Workstream:
Modelling and Mapping
Aim: To model and map groundwater flood hazard in areas of chalk and permeable superficial deposits (gravel) across the project area. Mapping will support actions to better manage flood risk, including works on the ground, planning decisions and a groundwater flood warning service.
Workstream:
Flood Warnings
Aim: To develop a web-based flood warning service to alert communities to potential groundwater flooding incidents. Currently, there is no suitable service for communities that covers groundwater flooding. Warnings will support communities to better prepare and respond to groundwater flooding, reducing the negative impacts on physical and mental health.
Workstream:
Resilience
Aim: To research and test innovative methods for increasing resilience to groundwater flooding, including updates properties could install to increase resilience during flood events, methods to prevent groundwater flooding from reaching properties, and community resilience to withstand flood events. This will support the creation of a best practice toolkit for communities at risk of groundwater flooding.
Workstream:
Placemaking: Planning, and Nature Based Solutions
Aim: To strengthen the consideration of groundwater in the planning system and develop ideas for nature-based solutions and Sustainable Drainage Systems with the project communities. This will support the creation of places that are more resilient to groundwater flooding.
Workstream:
Evaluation, Learning and Innovation
Aim: To ensure that innovation is a fundamental value across all workstreams in the project and that we are constantly evaluating our progress and learning from our work and our communities. This will support the project to have the best possible outcomes and forever change how groundwater flooding is managed.
Find out more about Project Groundwater
