Expanded Integrated Flood Defence Reduces Risk to Homes and Businesses

The risk of flooding to thousands of homes and businesses across England and Wales is being reduced thanks to the roll out of a British-developed fully integrated flood defence monitoring system from Meteor Communications (UK).

Utilising its own MCC-972XS GPRS telemetry and MCE-Nexus GPRS weather proof cameras, Meteor expects to deliver over 120 installations during 2015 to local councils, water authorities and the Environment Agency (EA).

Already this year, Meteor has overseen the completion of a significant council managed flood defence project in Wales, as well as installations across the Thames Valley. Some 60 cameras are monitoring higher flood risk sites across Southern England for the EA, transmitting images of flood alleviation infrastructure round the clock.

Meteor’s system enables customers to react quickly to changing conditions on site, respond proactively to mitigate risk, save money by eliminating unnecessary inspection visits and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time. It incorporates water level sensors, rain gauges, overflow monitors and cameras, all of which are monitored in real time and sent to a dedicated web portal.

The Meteor Data Centre provides a central portal that can be accessed from any web-enabled device. This allows users to rapidly ascertain the status of flood defence infrastructure. Multiple sites and users can be set up through a common platform, allowing data sharing with colleagues, subcontractors or the general public. Alarms can be set up for SMS or email alerts and users can request additional information from sites including pictures and enhanced logging through a simple, intuitive web interface.

Meteor has a depth of expertise in providing mission critical data systems to water utility companies, local authorities and the Environment Agency. This means that Meteor can survey, install and maintain the system in a cost effective manner.

The equipment is manufactured in the UK and designed to integrate into existing flood defence infrastructure, eliminating the need for costly and time consuming civil engineering works.

Matt Dibbs, Managing Director of Meteor Communications, said:

“Council and Environment Agency budgets are under intense pressure so Meteor’s comprehensive solutions provide fast, cost-effective and resilient monitoring of any remote infrastructure. Our flood defence solutions have been developed to be robust, quick to deploy and simple to operate and maintain.”