Design of a digital infrastructure for hydrological research

The UK is planning to implement a £38M (€43M) Flood and Drought Research Infrastructure to facilitate the hydrological science and innovation needed to underpin the UK’s adaptation and resilience to floods and droughts. The UKRI’s intent to invest from its infrastructure fund was published following a ~2-year scoping study that determined research community requirements through reviews of comparable infrastructures across the UK, Europe and globally, community workshops and questionnaires, and direct engagement with potential beneficiaries from research, industry and government bodies. Significantly, the scoping study identified the importance of a digital infrastructure to enable a step-change in access to hydrological monitoring data.  This would complement community access to the expected physical infrastructure for monitoring all phases of the water cycle across a range of catchment types.

Key requirements for the proposed digital infrastructure, to be delivered through 2023-2028, include access to UK-wide hydrological data alongside new catchment observatory data, supporting field monitoring and innovation through open digital systems, advancing the state of the art for sensor data management, linking monitoring activities more closely with research data archives and delivering support for open science. The digital infrastructure would leverage technological developments e.g. in cloud-based virtual research environments, and be delivered alongside a significant community capacity building effort to support cultural change and enable researchers to transform ways-of-working to maximise its potential benefits.