Forecast looks bright for flood response

Could you tell us how you found out about the Innovation Lab and why you decided to pitch your idea?

We heard about the Lab through LMarks, as we are alumni of another LMarks programme called the Lloyd’s Lab where we worked with leading insurers to improve their customers’ flood resilience. We were also in discussion with United Utilities, about how our technology could support their business, who also suggested that the Innovation Lab could be an ideal programme for us.

In simple terms, could you please summarise what your idea is for the Lab? 

Previsico represents a team of surface water flood forecasting specialists. We work with over 100 organisations to minimise the impact of flooding by providing live, actionable, street-level flood nowcast and forecast warnings. Our idea for the Lab is to work with United Utilities’ teams that are involved in flood response to better understand their requirements and pilot a solution that fits their processes for early warning and risk analysis.

What is the ultimate benefit your idea will bring to water customers in the Northwest? 

Flood forecasting and alerting systems are being increasingly employed globally to protect infrastructure and assets. However, these fail to account for surface water flooding (the greatest flood risk of all) or flooding from ordinary water courses. In response, Previsico has developed a unique flood warning service that combines pioneering, next-generation flood forecasting technologies with IoT sensors to generate alerts based on hyperlocal real-time surface water flood predictions. This tool will drive the reduction of losses and improved flood resilience.

How are you hoping to develop your idea through the Innovation Lab? 

We have several exciting work packages with United Utilities that will enable us to test our technology with different parts of the business and to identify areas where the solution needs to be more bespoke to the water industry.

How important do you think programmes like the Innovation Lab are for developing ideas? 

These programmes are pivotal, especially for scale-ups like Previsico who are expanding into new industries. We need to work closely with the water industry to ensure we are doing the best we can to address flood challenge for water companies. This Lab brings us closer than ever to an engaged, proactive, and passionate group of experts at United Utilities.

What does innovation mean to you in three words? 

Creativity, decisiveness, collaboration.

If you fast forward two years from now, where do you see your product?

We aim to provide the gold standard of flood forecasting. By improving the accuracy and performance of our forecasting system and by introducing new techniques and datasets to our process, we will deliver even more accurate hyperlocal forecasts that enable proactive measures to be taken to minimise flood impacts for United Utilities, and others, worldwide.