In 2020, Jacobs was selected by England's Environment Agency to design, develop and implement the National Flood Risk Assessment 2 (NaFRA2), a pioneering cloud computing system that will help create a step-change in the quality and scope of England's national flood risk information.
Along with JBA Consulting and a small group of industry and academic experts, Jacobs will combine its industry-leading flood modelling experience with web technologies and cloud computing to develop a system that underpins national-scale flood analysis in England.
The Pitt Review (2008), Exercise Watermark (2011) and the Environment Agency’s Flood Incident Management Plan (2015) all identified the need for real time information on flood inundation and consequent impact. With this growing recognition of the need to provide maps of flood extents and impacts in real time to support improved flood incident management, the project shows that the best way to provide this information is through a combination of pre-made flood maps and simplified flood modelling.
Jacobs extension to the EA's Incident Management System enables assessment of the impacts of asset failure, such as embankments or dams. While initially developed for fluvial flood risk, it may also be used for surface-water, groundwater and coastal flood risk. This new capability will assist the EA in improving incident management of flooding, particularly communication of forecast flood extents and areas at risk due to asset failure for Category 1 and 2 emergency responders.