Development of a UK database for predicting flood levels for overbank flows

Every year, major disasters and the associated damage and loss in the UK cost millions of pounds. One of the many ways that river engineers have responded to this is to collect and upgrade the amount, and quality, of the information about floods (inland and coastal). This paper reports on a research project which aims to (a) consolidate all existing data on overbank flows over a range of scales, and (b) prepare them for publication on the 'worldwide web'. The data are classified into three major groups, i.e. small-scale models, large-scale models, and field data. The data contain information on stage discharge, cross-section geometry, channel-plan form, sinuosity, and channel boundary roughness. Using the collected data, a simplified dimensionless stage-discharge relationship is developed. The results reveal that, using this equation, the stage within 10%, and discharge within 20%, of the measured values can be predicted.