In conjunction with Mouchel, RES staff acted as Principal Modellers on the model build and verification of the Ayrshire Integrated Catchment Study.

This study was driven by the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act 2009.  Under the terms of this act East Ayrshire, North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire Councils along with Scottish Water and SEPA have a number of obligations to meet including the production of Flood Risk Management Plans.

All stakeholders worked collaboratively to produce these plans which enabled the analysis of known and potential interactions between all system types but primarily those relating to flooding.

The model was constructed using Innovyze’s ICM and encompassed the Meadowhead WwTW Catchment Area. This covered 81km² and included the towns of Ayr, Prestwick, Troon, Irvine and Kilmarnock. The resulting 1D / 2D model contained 27,000 nodes, 70 combined sewer overflows, 44 pumping stations, and 80 km of main watercourse with a population of 250,000.

Comprehensive sewer network and river surveys were managed and supervised throughout the catchment and verification of both sewer network and river flows was undertaken using data from 400+ flow and depth monitors.

A number of 2D zones were constructed using Lidar and Mastermap data to represent overland flood routing. These 2D zones encompassed all main rivers and associated flood plains along with a number of ‘hotspot areas’ to enable closer more detailed analysis of flooding with the catchment.

The outputs from over 1000 simulations were used to generate the Flood Risk Management Plans.