Pat Rabbitte
Question:200 Mr. Rabbitte asked the Minister for Finance his plans to put in a place a national flood warning system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4150/02]
Written Answers. - Flood Relief.
The Office of Public Works is currently developing proposals for a programme of flood mapping. As a first step, this will involve a series of historic flood maps. These maps will include details of historic flood events and will be developed by collecting and interpreting large volumes of data from a range of sources and transferring the results into geographical format. The data for the maps would be acquired from local authority records, Office of Public Works drainage records, hydrometric records – from the Office of Public Works, the Environmental Protection Agency and the ESB – newspaper and media reports, insurance reports, and on-the-spot interviews.
Following completion of the historic mapping the intention would be to develop indicative flood maps. These would indicate the estimated extent of various flood events. The development of historic flood maps is a substantial project in itself, involving the collection and assimilation of vast amounts of data from a number of different sources. Substantial resources will be required for this project. As a first step it is intended to develop a pilot project based on a single local authority area. The results of this pilot can then be used to judge the feasibility of a nationwide project.