Minsmere and Yox Model Survey to Assess Flood Risk

There were multiple challenges due to the scope of this survey. One of the main areas that needed more attention was surveying the River Minsmere within the RSPB Minsmere nature reserve. This reserve is home to an abundance of wildlife that has been managed by the RSPB since 1947. The RSPB were notified whilst Storm Geomatics performed a site walk that was conducted before any site work was started. Due to the timing of the survey work Storm were able to carry out the survey in and around the River Minsmere within the wetlands as the nesting season was over. Being inundated with reeds, this area was the most challenging to survey. A team of three surveyors, utilising two floatation platforms, were used to navigate and survey this densely vegetated area. This made it easier and safer to obtain all outer bank and inner channel data.

A further challenge for the team was collating the data and ensuring that progress of each watercourse was recorded so that the handover of data from one surveyor to another went smoothly. Surveyors processed the data in Trimble Business Centre, and then exported this data to .CSV files and arranged it correctly so that it could be imported into our own software, GeoRiver®. So intuitive is GeoRiver®, the task of processing cross section survey data was very efficient from the drawing of cross sections (including structures), to placing of photos with bearings and being able to export different data sets so that they can be read by the latest flood modelling software and also pass EACSD validation.

The data goes through many Quality Assurance stages making sure that the final data sent to the client is to the stated specification and bespoke to the project specification.