January’s extreme weather initiated serious flood risk in the Somerset (GB) Levels. However, the British 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. The EA hired 16 portable clamp-on pipe flowmeters from Nivus to measure water volumes being discharged by emergency pumps to support operational monitoring during the event.
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 1–2 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. 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.
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| Extent of 2013/4 Flood (BBC) |
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.
The value of monitoring data.
Alongside pump deployment, the EA continued to operate its network of telemetered sensors and remote cameras across the region to help provide level and flow data. During the event, funding from the Somerset Rivers Authority also supported the establishment of a Community Flood Hub, providing public access to live operational data.
The provision of transparent, real-time data delivers a number of important benefits. For example, in an age when Social Media can rapidly disperse both accurate and inaccurate information, there is a risk that a lack of information can induce a sense of panic. So, access to live data, particularly where accompanied by live imagery, can provide high levels of reassurance.
The Nivus clamp on flow meters were used to monitor transportable pumping operations and contributed to the EA’s operational updates throughout the event. For example, on Thursday 29 January 2026, the EA published a Briefing assuring local residents that “Pumps can now remove water from the moors quicker than the system takes to fill the moors with water from further up the catchment.”
Pump health and status in the EA’s stationary pumps are continuously monitored and connected to the Agency’s telemetry system. However, transportable pumps needed to be monitored as soon as they were installed, so the requirement for flowmeters was extremely urgent.
“Conscious of the need to respond very quickly, we immediately dispatched every portable flowmeter in our UK stock,” explains Nivus Managing Director for Britain, Alistair MacKinnon. “The remainder were rushed to the UK from Germany, in time to meet the EA’s requirements. Given the operational pressures during the flooding event, rapid deployment was an important consideration. As an existing Framework Supplier to the EA, Nivus was able to provide NivuFlow Mobile 600 portable flowmeters to support temporary pumping operations during the flood event.”
The flowmeters were connected to the Nivus Web Portal allowing data to be directly provided to the Community Flood Hub website via an API. This also provided Nivus support engineers with remote access for configuration and performance checks. Consequently, it was not necessary for Nivus engineers to undertake site visits, which reduced risk in a busy active flood zone and also helped to reduce the carbon footprint of operations.
Summary.
In the days before Storm Chandra, advance weather information allowed the EA to prepare for its arrival. This included, for example, draining the Moors to increase capacity. However, increased flood resilience had already been established in the area, and a key feature of the plan was the provision of measurement data – to inform flood management operations, and to provide reassurance.
Climate change has resulted in more extreme weather in the UK. For example, 6 of the 10 wettest years on record (since 1862) have occurred since 1998. It is likely therefore, that events currently regarded as exceptional may not be regarded as such in the future, so the EA and its partners in the Somerset Rivers Authority are planning accordingly.
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