UK-BASED WS ATKINS HAS successfully completed the implementation of a new website (http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/subjects/flood/floodwarning) for the UK’s Environment Agency (EA), powered by a state-of-the-art content management system.
The new site allows as many as 250 agency staff to add content, including images, directly to the website without the requirement for specialised training. Editorial and management control is built into the system to maintain standards of content.
Features of the new system include real-time flood warning information. At times of potential flooding, Agency staff generate flood warnings from forecasts of flooding based on a range of observations including rainfall and river level and flows, and flood forecasting models. Flood warnings are fed to the agency website every day of the year. Data is combined from several other national databases – mapping information, address information and other information such as local radio and television. All of these databases are then fed to the web servers, and updated constantly. The agency website has been upgraded to handle one million hits per day to cope with the enormous demand for access to the site information services.