New Surface Water Management Planning Contract Awarded

Independent engineering and environmental consultancy, Royal Haskoning (UK) announce that it has won a competitive bid to provide Surface Water Management Planning services and a Water Cycle Study for a consortium of Stafford, Lichfield, Tamworth and South Staffordshire local councils in the UK. The work, when completed, will inform the councils’ planning and urban development strategies for the next two decades by identifying areas at high-risk of surface water flooding. The study will also provide a thorough assessment of surface water flood risk and valuable forward planning information on water resource and sewerage capacity.

The decision to appoint Royal Haskoning was heavily influenced by the firm’s extensive flood risk management experience, in particular work with the Environment Agency, for whom Royal Haskoning provides National support on both the Strategic Flood Risk Mapping (SFRM) and National Engineering and Environmental Consultancy Agreement (NEECA) Frameworks. With surface water management only recently coming under the auspices of local authorities, the collaboration of these four councils represents one of the first concerted efforts into surface water flood management planning and will direct the course of the communities’ residential and commercial building, transportation, and other major infrastructural projects.

The Surface Water Management Plan will be delivered in two stages. The first preparatory phase will comprise the development of a steering committee, consisting of key project stakeholders. Royal Haskoning will then perform high level analytical modelling of flood risk in the four local authority areas. The second phase will entail a more detailed risk assessment, evaluating the findings from phase one and presenting these to the steering committee for actionable next steps. The project will be entirely funded by the councils, with the first set of evidence to be presented by Royal Haskoning in early Spring 2010.