What is the FDRI? The FDRI is a scoping project funded by NERC that will establish the requirements for a potential new national Floods & Droughts Research Infrastructure, and provide NERC with the information needed to submit a business case in Spring 2021.
The primary objective of the FDRI is to increase the UK’s resilience to floods and droughts through a transformational research capability, which will dramatically improve in UK’s flood and drought forecasting, planning, incident response & management.
The Scoping Study team is led by the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and comprises researchers from the University of Bristol, Imperial College London, and the British Geological Survey.
Building on the NERC-funded community workshops in 2019, which identified strong stakeholder interest in engaging with a dedicated scoping project, the FDRI team will be seeking views, ideas and inputs from a broad range of stakeholders across business, landowners, government and regulatory agencies via a series of surveys, webinars and virtual workshops. The team will also undertake a thorough review of past and ongoing flood and drought monitoring programmes, both in the UK and internationally.