ID 2950236 SBRI Phase 1 - DfI - SBRI to deliver a remote monitoring tool for flood defence condition

Tender description

Department for Infrastructure manages approximately 500km of flood defences across Northern Ireland. To facilitate their management, flood defences are grouped into systems based on the type of defence i.e. Fluvial (river) and Coastal Flood Defences. They may be further classified by risk i.e. Very High-, High-, Medium- or Low Consequence. Approximately 124 km of raised flood defences are categorised as Very High, High or Medium consequence. In general these protect urban areas and are constructed from materials including reinforced concrete, steel sheetpiles or masonary. Flood defences classified as Low Consequence are generally earthen defences which are wide crested with a clay core and those owned by third parties, both of which amount to a further 377 km. Flood defences are susceptible to damage during extreme weather conditions, landowner intervention, river erosion, etc. This can range from slight damage to the crest of the defence to total collapse. In general flood defences are remote from public roads and it therefore requires significant resource and time to carry out inspections. This is particularly challenging following a significant flooding incident where there may be wide scale damage and a threat of further flooding. Rivers Policy is to inspect these defences on a regular basis and have 99 per cent of Coastal defences and 70 per cent of Fluvial defences in an acceptable condition at any given time. The capture of flood defence data via regular scans using remote technology, and the automated analysis of these scans could be undertaken following any major weather events or prior to a routine inspection. Continued analytics and comparison of the data/image against set parameters could therefore highlight/alert any changes that may have occurred and provide Rivers with an indication as to areas of particular interest on which to concentrate resources. This would be particularly useful in a post flood scenario. The provision of a mechanism to record real time data/images and an analytics tool would allow Rivers to frequently scan flood defence assets highlighting potential defects against ‘acceptable condition ‘at any time, providing alerts/highlight of areas of change and allow a prompt initial focus on those areas of concern. This would allow repairs to be initiated at an earlier stage thus reduce flood risk to people and property and would save significant resource. DfI Rivers currently hold a database of information on all flood defences for which it has responsibility to maintain. Geospatial data of flood defences within Northern Ireland is recorded within the ArcGIS platform and can be viewed on Flood Maps NI for further reference. Funding is currently in place for Phase I of the competition, but the DfI reserves the right at its sole discretion to extend from Phase I with successful bidders as part of this procurement. DfI also reserves its right to extend the competition to a third phase to allow for further testing of potential solutions. Phase I of the SBRI is intended to show the technical feasibility of the proposed concept and its viability as a solution for DfI.