The Flood Hub

The Flood Hub is a partnership website between The Flood Hub People, The Environment Agency, United Utilities and the Cumbria, Lancashire and the Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire Strategic Flood Partnerships. It is funded by the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee and was launched on the 5th November 2018.

The Flood Hub is designed to be an online platform of flood resilience information for those at risk of flooding.

It is funded by the North West Regional Flood and Coastal Committee (RFCC), through Local Levies from Lead Local Flood Authorities. The North West RFCC is one of 12 in England, established under the Flood and Water Management Act 2010 to take an overview of flood and coastal erosion risk management across the North West.

The Flood Hub People wrote the content and worked with website developers to create the website. Partners provide support to The Flood Hub for the website. The Flood Hub People manage the day-to-day maintenance of the website and social media accounts, create and publish new content, develop new features and deal with enquiries.

The Environment Agency support The Flood Hub People to develop the website and continue to provide updates for Flood Risk Management Scheme pages. United Utilities support The Flood Hub People to develop the website. The North West Strategic Flood Partnerships of Cumbria, Lancashire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside and Cheshire support The Flood Hub People to develop the website.

The website was developed as a direct result of feedback we gained from The Flood Hub People’s engagement with communities that were affected by Storms Desmond and Eva in December 2015. It was clear that people wanted:

  • One place where they could find flood information to improve knowledge and awareness around flooding and flood risk.
  • To understand the jargon used in flood risk management.
  • A website that was easy to navigate with downloadable resources.
  • To be able to find out what was happening in their area.
  • To see what others are doing to cope with flooding.

 

The Flood Hub People are the driving force behind The Flood Hub website, we create and publish new content and resources, develop new features and respond to flood related enquiries. Our work has resulted in around half a million users visiting the website.

We also manage The Flood Hub social media accounts on

…(I) just wanted to say, how useful and informative it is, and how great The Flood Hub and all its content is looking. Keep it coming and keep up the fantastic work you’re doing.

Environment Agency Employee

The Flood Hub website is a wonderful asset for groups like ours, the amount of information that is available is absolutely amazing, it really is a one stop shop and it is so easy to find an answer to a problem.

Parbold Flood Group Secretary and Flood Coordinator

…The Flood Hub giving us confidence and most importantly the correct information on how to protect ourselves for the future.

Sherwood Drive Flood Group Committee Member

It is a fantastic resource to access when preparing for community and other engagement meetings (e.g with planners) to clearly explain flood risk management in a non-technical way.

Flood Risk Manager

Overview

The Flood Hub offers a wide range of flood related content and resources for households, businesses, communities, landowners and Risk management authorities (RMAs) to enhance their knowledge. The homepage has 12 tiles covering various topics such as planning and preparing for floods, flood recovery, Property Flood Resilience (PFR), Natural Flood Management (NFM), Sustainable Drainage Systems (SuDS), planning and development and more!

Visitors can explore the News, Events and Blogs page and access a Local Area Map detailing flood schemes, natural flood management projects, community flood groups and more. The Flood Hub also issues a quarterly newsletter packed full of interesting and useful flood related information.

Additionally, our flood warning widget highlights the current number of flood alerts, flood warnings and severe flood warnings that there are in the North West.

Currently, over 270 different local authorities, partner agencies and first, second and third sector organisations direct communities and residents through to The Flood Hub via their webpages.

 

Flood Risk Management Schemes

Flood Hub hosts information on a number of Flood Risk Management Schemes (FRMS) across the North West that are either proposed, in progress or completed. The content is provided by Risk Management Authorities, allowing users to see what is happening in their area to help manage flood risk. The pages contain information about the scheme, together with any updates and newsletters. The FRMS are also displayed on our Local Area Map.