Co-creating a flood warning system to alert citizens faster

The wettest February on record in the UK combined with a series of severe storms in early 2020 saw the number of flood warnings issued by the UK’s Environment Agency reach a peak. And with analyses by the country’s weather authority, The Met Office, confirming that the UK’s climate is gradually becoming wetter, that pattern is likely to continue. 

This increase in flood warnings has put additional pressure on the Environment Agency to issue timely flood warnings to citizens, businesses, emergency services and local authorities. However, until recently, the government body was dependent on a system which was first developed in 2006. 

To help modernize that technology infrastructure, the Environment Agency turned to its technology partner Fujitsu. Some of the key areas identified for improvement were simplifying the service and removing outdated features, such as fax and pager support, integrating its use of Facebook for issuing warnings, reducing costs and migrating the service to the cloud. 

Using a co-creation approach, the Environment Agency and Fujitsu developed the new solution in the space of a few months. Daily collaboration meant that any issues could be immediately addressed and Fujitsu was able to add features to improve the system. 

Co-creating with Fujitsu was key, says Simon Nebesnuick, flood warning system product manager for the Environment Agency. It underpinned “a professional, collaborative partnership that enables us to solve problems quickly and deliver results.”