‘We are now geo-engineering the planet whether we want to or not. The rest of humanity’s history will involve climate change and climate control.’

Flood Mitigation

The effects of climate change will continue to be debated over the coming years as extreme weather events and global warming become more apparent. There is an increasing body of evidence that shows that extreme daily rainfall rates are becoming more intense and that the rate of increase is consistent with what is expected from the fundamental physics of a warming world.

In recent years the UK has seen a dramatic increase in the number of flood events and flood risk warnings in many areas. This is of increasing concern to utility providers, industry, local government, home owners and insurers. The Floods Directive (2007) signalled a change from flood defence to flood risk management, where authorities, communities and individuals should be aware of their own flood risk and have plans in place to minimise the consequences of flooding.

There is a growing awareness amongst these stakeholders that simply building more or higher flood defences will not solve the problems of flooding. Indeed, implementing permanent flood mitigation infrastructure has a typical lead time in excess of 10 years!

There is an immediate need for temporary, cost effective, rapidly deployed first line flood protection.

Having studied and analysed many of the most recent global flooding events, we have worked with manufacturers to bring to market what we believe to be the best temporary mobile flood defence barriers currently available.

City of York

Principle

The principle is simple, to have a flexible barrier that is rapidly and easily deployed and can utilise the water from the flood to create a temporary barrier.

That is to say “We fight water with water!”

Viridis offer two types of barrier; the NoFloods barrier is a light weight version that can be deployed in continuous individual lengths of up to 200m and the Beaver barrier that comes in 5m/10m/15m and 20m individual lengths.

Both systems can be extended to whatever length is required, quickly and efficiently.

Beaver deployment in Switzerland

Our systems are high speed installations, that not only help protect against the flooding we can forecast but also against situations that have already occurred and require a speedy emergency response. They are therefore perfect for proactive solutions for Emergency Response Planners and also reactive solutions when damage mitigation is critical.

Both systems can be deployed before or during flooding and on almost any surface; grass, tarmac, paving etc. and due to the flexible nature of their construction will adapt to undulations in the surface.

Unlike the traditional method of forming a sandbag wall, both our systems have huge operational and cost benefits versus this method.

To create a 1000 meter long wall to retain 80cm of water using the sandbag method will require @6900 man hrs, 150,000 sandbags, 2500 cubic meters of sand and 149 trucks.

Using the NoFloods system will require 16 man hrs and one truck, whilst using the Beaver system will require 64 man hrs and one truck!

Both systems have the added benefits of rapid disassembly and removal and require minimal storage space.

NoFloods deployment in France

The NoFloods System

The NoFloods Mobile Barrier is constructed of Polypropylene (PP) and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) tubing joined by metal terminals and junctions.

Due to the unique and innovative design and the materials used, the NoFloods Mobile Barrier shows extremely high strength but at the same time high flexibility.

The NoFloods Mobile Barrier protects people, infrastructure and the environment and has an extremely low environmental impact as the barriers are made from 100% environmental friendly and recyclable materials and the solution is 98% reusable.

 

Product
Material
Tube Type
Tube Diameter
Available Lengths
kg/m when empty
kg/m when filled
Max retained head
Twin tube 60PP/LDPETwin60 cmUp to 200m@3 565 kg36 cm
Triple tube 60PP/LDPETriple60 cmUp to 200m@3 850 kg54 cm
Twin tube 125PP/LDPETwin125 cmUp to 200m@4 2350 kg80 cm
Triple tube 125PP/LDPETriple125 cmUp to 200m@4 3525 kg120 cm

The recommended head of water is directly affected by the friction between the flood barrier and the surface on which it is deployed. The above results refer to in-house testing and real life deployment data. Results will differ for each deployment.

The Beaver System

The Beaver system is probably our most utilised system with over 40,000 meters sold and to date has been successfully deployed over 300 times throughout Europe, helping to save an estimated 100 million Euros of damage.

It is the preferred choice of The Swiss Army, many European Municipalities and the success continues with the winning of the tender to supply Hungary’s National Catastrophe Defence. The order includes eight kilometres of 20 meter long flood barriers and two kilometres of 10 meter long barriers.

The Beaver barrier system is constructed from a laminated Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) and Polyester (PES) fabric and is immensely strong and durable.

Unlike the NoFloods, it requires no junctions or terminals and connects directly to the next unit by a patented connection system. This allows it to be connected in any length required.

 

Product
Material
Tube type
Tube Diameter
Available Lengths
kg/m when empty
kg/m when filled
Max retained head
M2/50PVC/PESTwin60 cm5/10/15/20 m@4.5 700 kg50 cm
M2XL 80PVC/PESTwin90 cm5/10/15/20 m@7 1200 kg80 cm
H2 100PVC/PESTwin110 cm5/10/15/20 m@7.51500 kg100 cm
S 130PVC/PES2 x Single150 cm5/10/15/20 m@82 x 1800 kg130 cm

The recommended head of water is directly affected by the friction between the flood barrier and the surface on which it is deployed. The above results refer to in-house testing and real life deployment data. Results will differ for each deployment. Please note that the S 130 model consists of two single tubes that are fastened together via roped eyelets to form a twin tube.