Mott MacDonald has been appointed by Anglian Water and Severn Trent Water to review and update each company’s rainfall-runoff models across a combined total of over 150 surface water catchments in England and Wales. Together, both companies provide water to 12 million people.
Rainfall-runoff modelling is the fundamental cornerstone in the development of Water Resource Management Plans and Drought Plans for UK water companies. These models provide the basis for understanding surface water availability and allow the long-term assessment of drought scenarios and climate change impacts on water resources. The models will feed into the development of strategic options for water supply.
Mott MacDonald is working as consultant for Anglian Water and Severn Trent Water implementing a variety of innovations including; reviewing, testing and adopting a variety of new models and datasets, and the application of distributed modelling for Anglian Water to bring greater confidence to areas of data scarcity and uncertainty. The consultancy is also automating the model calibration process, making the modelling process more efficient and ensuring the models provide the best possible fit to historic data. Strong collaboration and the sharing of best practice has benefited both companies and ensured alignment in strategic approach for water resource assessment.
Mott MacDonald’s project manager, Tom Beskeen, said: “It is fantastic to be involved in updating the rainfall-runoff models for Anglian Water and Severn Trent Water. By ensuring that we have the best possible understanding of water availability we can ensure that the decisions on water resources management are sustainable and based on the latest science.”
The models will be completed by September 2020.