M Design, Are all Flood Risk Assessments Created Equal?????

Are all Flood Risk Assessments Created Equal?????

The range and diversity of flood risk assessments is staggering and must be a constant source of anxiety for anyone looking to develop a site these days.

In the last few months we have had such a range of approach and advice from planners and local environment agency flood officers that anyone new to this aspect of building design must struggle.

We have had large development sites that have been accepted with nothing more than a quick check on the surface water runoff proposals through to a building extension that has required detailed catchment analysis and full river modeling!

For us it all helps keep us at the sharp end of current thinking and requirements; the range of our flood risk service has developed dramatically over the last 6 years.

As a point of interest, our largest fee for a flood risk assessment to date it over 6 k but our smallest is £400!!

The smallest job may be a quick assessment of the proposed surface water runoff rates and the largest will involve commissioning topographical surveys (including cross sections of rivers), complex hydrological analysis using The Flood Estimation Handbook or similar, producing 3D models of the development site and 1D hydraulic models using tools such as HEC-RAS.

So the answer to the question is that not all flood risk assessments are created equally I guess! Here at M Design though, we have the skills and experience to help you with whatever level of help you require and whatever type of FRA you need, which many of our competitors cannot do. We are also extremely friendly professional people and you can rest assured that whoever you speak to will actually be doing the work with none of this passing down the line to inexperienced staff.