The Environment Agency improves the monitoring of the UK’s flood defences

Case Studies | March 2016

The Environment Agency (EA) assesses flood risk and maintains the UK’s flood defences. It must be at a constant state of readiness.

Business Need

EA wanted to improve the efficiency of service visits, enabling engineers to be ready to move at a moment’s notice. It wanted to prioritise visits and to build early-warning systems. Many of these culverts are in remote, hard to reach locations. They require a great deal of time and money to visit.

Solution

EA is working with iDefigo Group, a remote monitoring specialist, and Vodafone’s Global IoT platform. A network of smart cameras, each connected to a central platform and powered by small, solar panels, provide regular, accurate updates. The cameras send regular images of infrastructure, the bridges, culverts and drains, to support regular visits by engineers. These can be viewed centrally, or by engineers on the move via a mobile device.

Business Benefits

• Allows the Environment Agency to better plan emergency response and assess flood risk, from a single platform
• Improves productivity of service engineers with a solution integrated, in real-time, with mobile devices
• Provides the scale to connect thousands of remote assets, with the necessary national coverage

"Many of these cameras are in river valleys, where connectivity is not great. We’ve beaten this with the Vodafone Global SIM."

Mick Robinson,
Technical Advisor FCRM, Environment Agency