Monitoring & metering
RACE AGAINST THE FLOOD
anuary’s extreme weather initiated serious flood risk in the Somerset Levels. However, the Environment Agency (EA) and partners were able to manage potential impacts by implementing flood resilience strategies that included the rapid deployment of many additional transportable pumps.
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To support operational monitoring during the event, the EA hired 16 portable clamp-on pipe flowmeters from Nivus to measure water volumes being discharged by emergency pumps. Pump performance in the field can differ from theoretical values, which is why clamp-on flowmeters were used to measure actual pump rates during the flood response. This provided operational data to support flood management activities and informed the sharing of updates with stakeholders and the public.
The EA manages a large number of both static and transportable pumps in the area, with additional portable pumps brought in during exceptional events. To support the emergency response, around half of the required flowmeters were supplied the following day, with the remainder delivered within one to two weeks. Each flowmeter was connected to telemetry which facilitated the provision of real- time data as well as remote diagnostics. In order to appreciate the role of pumps in Somerset flood management, it is first necessary to understand the particular challenges presented by the region.
FLOOD MANAGEMENT IN THE SOMERSET LEVELS AND MOORS
The Somerset Levels are known for their low-lying land, tidal rivers and regular winter flooding.
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PORTABLE FLOWMETERS RUSHED TO SOMERSET DURING 2026 FLOODS
The county was originally known as ‘Sumersata’, which means ‘the land of the summer people’, but today complicated networks of channels, ditches, sluices, spillways and pumps have been established to minimise flood risk. This infrastructure is continuously monitored so that flood management staff at the Environment Agency can respond quickly and effectively to any increase in flood risk.
In Somerset, the ‘Levels’ are the higher areas of coastal clay, and the ‘Moors’ are low-lying inland basins into which the rivers overspill. The Moors therefore provide vital storage capacity during periods of high rainfall.
Some of the key Somerset rivers sit on perched embankments, which are higher than the land around them. To safeguard these banks from overflow damage, spillways have been constructed to allow floodwater to flow into the floodplain of the moors. When flood risk is high, these rivers take water from the high ground to the sea by discharging into the Severn Estuary. After a storm has passed and flood has receded, water is pumped back over the embankments into the river channels.
Following the devastating impacts of the 2013/14 floods, the Somerset Rivers Authority was established to reduce the risks and impacts of flooding across Somerset. The partners in the authority include Somerset Council, the Parrett and Axe Brue Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs), the EA, Natural England, the Wessex Regional Flood & Coastal Committee and Wessex Water.
2026 FLOOD EVENT
In late January 2026, Storm Chandra brought exceptionally wet weather to the south-west of England, north-east Scotland and parts of Northern Ireland. Somerset recorded its second wettest January on record with around 1.2 million m3
/hr
of water rushing though the Parrett and Tone river catchments and overspilling into the floodplain of the Somerset Levels and Moors.
Somerset Council, the Environment Agency and Local Resilience Partners declared a major incident on 27 January. Flood risk was exacerbated by further wet weather in early February, so exceptional circumstances prompted the need for exceptional measures such as the utilisation of a number of transportable pumps, to supplement the EA’s existing stationary and portable pumps.
Continued on page 52... August 2026 Instrumentation Monthly
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