Earl Bourner, Operational Commissioning Asset Manager for Highways, Kent County Council has said:

“We have installed Gully Tech sensors in a number of know identified flooding hot spots across the KCC Highway Network, to help us understand the impacts of flooding.

The gully data is helping KCC to make informed decisions regarding reactive cleansing of gullies, emergency call outs and helping to understand the capacity of the highway surface water systems, for example how quickly the flood surcharges after a rainfall event. To also measure this against the rainfall data in one system is very a good tool to help demonstrate climate change and that surface water system were not designed to cope with the levels of rainfall we are now experiencing.

The below location has a history of flooding and during extreme downpours the properties have experienced internal flooding on several occasions over the years.

The drainage system as recently been enhanced, however, to monitor the performance of this surface water system we have installed a number of sensors.

Since being installed the sensors have recorded no further flooding events, and this information has been verified by the property owners who keep a close eye on any prolonged periods of rainfall. In this instance the system is working correctly, and the sensors are recording accurate data.

The advantage of the sensors, within in this system once the outlets become blocked, the sensors inform us so we can arrange the necessary cleansing to protect the properties.”