RAB Team Attend International Hydrological Software Conference

Members of the RAB Resilience Team recently joined other industry professionals from around the world at the Delft-FEWS software conference in the Netherlands.

An open-source software, Delft-FEWS is developed and managed by Deltares who are based in Delft in the Netherlands. The software facilitates a wide range of hydrological tasks including flood forecasting, reservoir management, real-time operations, and hydrological data validation. It is used by many international government agencies including those here in the UK (Environment Agency in England, SEPA in Scotland, and NRW in Wales).

Claire Raw (Senior Resilience Consultant) and Dr Rebecca Smith (Resilience Consultant) attended the conference on behalf of RAB. Several of our clients use the software, and it is important that we keep up to date with recent developments in forecasting capabilities and innovative technologies to improve data collection.

One of the benefits of attending international conferences is understanding how other countries use the software for flood forecasting and how they disseminate this information to the public and their professional partners. Sharing experiences with other users from around the world also highlighted a number of challenges, including the need for even more data as we move towards the use of probabilistic forecasting.

The second day of the conference focused on Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) which is still in the early stages of development. A key point was that we need more data to be able to use AI to develop flood forecasting in the future.

RAB deliver a wide range of resilience and flood forecasting services for both public and private sector organisations. More information is available here on our website, or you can get in touch for an informal discussion on your specific project by email to enquiries@rabconsultants.co.uk or call our head office in Lichfield on 0330 223 6475.