Upgrade Gives Environment Agency Improved Flood Forecasting

The Environment Agency has commissioned CSE Servelec to upgrade its £1.6 million South West and Anglian Telemetry (SWANTEL) system to provide long term stability for a range of services, including flood forecasting.

The SWANTEL project, established in 2004, enables the capture and storage of data relating to climatic conditions throughout the South West and East Anglia regions of the UK. Leading edge technology, based on CSE Servelec’s SCOPE-X suite of software, is employed to facilitate wide area data collection and processing.

CSE Servelec’s Business Solutions and Customer Support groups annually upgrade the system as part of the Agency’s evergreen support contract.  The latest contract includes enhancements that will provide the Agency with the latest Sun server hardware and an Oracle 10g upgrade.  This will ensure availability of its Oracle infrastructure through to the existing system’s anticipated end of life, whilst achieving the highest level of performance.  

The SCOPE software uses a combination of industry standard web technologies to provide client functionality within a standard web browser.  Server side mimic generation driven from database oriented templates is used to efficiently manage the many hundreds of real time operator mimics.

The South West and Anglian Region, combined, have a population of over nine million and the Environment Agency has an important role in warning people about the risk of flooding, and in reducing the likelihood of flooding from rivers and the sea. The system helps support and improves the Agency’s ability to forecast floods and droughts, and to monitor pollution. 

Effective flood warning comprises of several processes including the monitoring of weather, river and coastal conditions, forecasting river and sea levels, disseminating flood warnings, and advising those at risk of the most effective action to take to prepare for and respond to potential floods. The multi-regional approach to the project enables the Agency to achieve significant savings through standardisation and shared management.

Efficient, effective communication systems and networks are key ‘tools’ for the Agency to regulate and monitor processes and events which have an impact on the environment. Many activities rely upon communication systems or telemetry to provide vital operational information and data. In addition to flood warning, these also include river management and control, hydrology, water quality, waste regulation, integrated pollution prevention and control, fisheries, conservation and buildings security and management.

CSE Servelec has a long history of working with the Environment Agency, having implemented the existing monitoring systems in Anglia and the South West in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  In addition, CSE Servelec implemented the monitoring system for the Southern Region in 1999.
CSE Servelec's Business Solutions Group has nearly 30 years experience of telemetry, data acquisition, and integration with business applications. We innovatively integrate real time telemetry data with business systems to provide totally managed asset based solutions.

We integrate web-based solutions that meet business needs through the unity of creativity and technical excellence based on leading edge technology.