Drainage, Flood Risk & Natural Flood Management
Drainage & Flood: Features & Capabilities
Every capability in Drainage & Flood, grouped by what it is for.
Drainage & Flood carries 12 capabilities and 5 interactive tools. They are grouped below by what they are for rather than by which screen they live on, because the underlying record is shared.
Capabilities
What Drainage & Flood does
Every capability below is built on the same underlying record, so entering something once is enough for it to appear wherever it is needed.
Record and plan
- Drainage system mapping including mains, laterals, outfalls and manholes
- Historic drainage plan digitisation and georeferencing
- Drainage performance assessment by field with wet spot identification
Operate and monitor
- Maintenance schedule for jetting, outfall clearing and ditch management
- Drainage renewal appraisal with cost and yield benefit modelling
- Mole ploughing and subsoiling planning against soil condition
Comply and evidence
- Flood risk assessment for land, buildings and access
- Flood warning subscription and response planning
- Natural flood management intervention design — leaky dams, bunds, ponds and buffer planting
Analyse and improve
- Runoff and attenuation modelling for catchment contribution
- Watercourse and ditch riparian responsibility recording
- Internal Drainage Board liability and rate record
In the field
Drainage & flood, as it actually looks
Photography from working UK holdings alongside the interface that records it. Every frame below is a commissioned slot: the brief is stated until the photograph is taken.
Drainage & Flood — a walkthrough
A working pass through drainage & flood: entering the record once, and watching it appear in the evidence pack, the calendar and the scheme application without being typed again.
- 0:00 What the module is for
- 0:48 Entering the record
- 2:05 Where it appears next
- 3:20 The evidence pack
Photography slots state their own brief until the shot is commissioned, so the layout never shifts when real images arrive.
In practice
Six things Drainage & Flood changes on day one
None of these requires a new process. They all come from recording the work you already do, once, in a form the rest of the platform can use.
Drainage system mapping including mains
Drainage system mapping including mains, laterals, outfalls and manholes.
Historic drainage plan digitisation and
Historic drainage plan digitisation and georeferencing.
Drainage performance assessment by field
Drainage performance assessment by field with wet spot identification.
Maintenance schedule for jetting, outfall
Maintenance schedule for jetting, outfall clearing and ditch management.
Drainage renewal appraisal with cost
Drainage renewal appraisal with cost and yield benefit modelling.
Mole ploughing and subsoiling planning
Mole ploughing and subsoiling planning against soil condition.
By nation
The same job, four different sets of rules
Delivered by: Defra, the Rural Payments Agency, Natural England, the Environment Agency and the Forestry Commission.
Main scheme: Environmental Land Management, with the Sustainable Farming Incentive as the principal offer alongside Countryside Stewardship, capital grants and Landscape Recovery.
Delinked payments end after 2027. Windows have closed at short notice before, so budget-fill status is worth watching.
Delivered by: The Scottish Government and the Rural Payments and Inspections Division.
Main scheme: A four-tier framework under the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Act 2024, with base and enhanced direct payments and elective and complementary tiers following.
Whole Farm Plan components are a condition of support and phase in over several years. Miss a component and the payment is at risk.
Delivered by: The Welsh Government and Rural Payments Wales.
Main scheme: The Sustainable Farming Scheme, with Universal, Optional and Collaborative layers, replacing the legacy area payment which phases out by 2029.
The Universal layer requires twelve actions, at least ten per cent habitat and a farm carbon baseline. Welsh language provision is a legal expectation, not an optional extra.
Delivered by: DAERA.
Main scheme: The Sustainable Agriculture Programme, with the Farm Sustainability Payment as the area-based safety net alongside beef, suckler, sheep, protein crop and horticulture schemes.
Conditionality now includes soil nutrient health and bovine genetics participation, and progressive capping applies above sixty thousand pounds.
Interactive
Tools you actually use, not screens you read
These are working interfaces inside the module — maps, calculators, planners and dashboards that respond to your own holding data.
Drainage map with performance overlay and wet spot marking
Drainage map with performance overlay and wet spot marking
MapDrainage renewal payback calculator using workable days and yield uplift
Drainage renewal payback calculator using workable days and yield uplift
CalculatorFlood risk map for the holding with warning zone overlay
Flood risk map for the holding with warning zone overlay
MapNatural flood management siting tool using terrain and flow accumulation
Natural flood management siting tool using terrain and flow accumulation
ToolDitch and watercourse maintenance schedule generator
Ditch and watercourse maintenance schedule generator
ToolObligation calendar
What drainage & flood asks of you, and when
Windows, deadlines and recurring obligations for England. Set a different nation and the calendar reconfigures; farm across a border and it shows both, reconciled.
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February 1 entry
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3 February: Animal Health and Welfare Pathway
Rolling application.
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April 2 entries
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12 April: Appraise the investment case
A recurring step in drainage & flood.
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20 April: Adding Value Grant
Round-based.
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June 4 entries
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5 June: Farming Transformation Fund
Round-based by theme.
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15 June: Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026
Two windows in 2026: window one from 30 June, window two from September.
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17 June: Locate and map the existing system
A recurring step in drainage & flood.
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18 June: Prioritise maintenance and renewal
A recurring step in drainage & flood.
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July 2 entries
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14 July: Slurry Infrastructure Grant
Round-based.
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17 July: Water Management Grant
Round-based.
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October 1 entry
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5 October: Farming Equipment and Technology Fund
Round-based, usually open for a defined application period.
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November 3 entries
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9 November: Assess performance field by field
A recurring step in drainage & flood.
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12 November: Improving Farm Productivity Grant
Round-based.
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27 November: Environmental Land Management Capital Grants
Round-based, with rapid allocation once open.
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December 1 entry
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26 December: Countryside Stewardship
Rolling and round-based depending on the tier and option group.
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Compared
Where Agrivencia differs from what already exists
The UK already has strong point tools. What it does not have is one record spanning them, or one view spanning four nations. That gap is the entire proposition.
| Agrivencia | Single-purpose farm software | Government portals | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Covers all four nations | Yes, each as a first-class tenancy | Usually one nation | One administration each |
| One record across domains | Yes — 84 modules, one data spine | Within its own domain only | Within its own scheme only |
| Scheme rules held as data | Yes, updated the day rules change | Rarely | Authoritative but not reusable |
| Assurance evidence auto-assembled | Yes, from operational records | Partially, per scheme | Not applicable |
| Whole-farm income optimisation | Across schemes and nature markets together | No | No |
| Offline field capture | Yes, designed first | Varies | Generally no |
| Marketplace and commerce | Multivendor with verification and escrow | Separate platforms | Not applicable |
| Farmer-owned data export | Published charter, open formats | Varies considerably | Limited |
This comparison describes categories of product rather than named competitors, and reflects our own assessment. Any specific product should be evaluated on its current published capability.
Data model
What the module records, and how it connects
These are the entities the module maintains. Because they are shared across the platform rather than owned by one screen, a record created here is available everywhere it is relevant.
- Drainage run
- Outfall
- Manhole
- Wet spot
- Maintenance event
- Flood risk zone
- NFM intervention
- Riparian responsibility
Every entity carries a full audit trail and is exportable in open formats under the Farm Data Charter.
Questions answered
What people ask about Drainage & Flood
Does this replace the software I already use?
Not necessarily. Agrivencia integrates with authoritative sources and mainstream packages rather than insisting on replacing them. Where an incumbent does one job well, the platform connects to it; where the job spans several systems and nobody does it, the platform does it.
Will it work where I have no signal?
Yes. Field capture in Drainage & Flood is offline first, storing locally and synchronising when a connection returns. Only around a fifth of UK farms report reliable signal across the whole holding, so this is a design assumption rather than a feature.
What happens when the scheme rules change?
Scheme rules are held as data rather than code, so a rate change, a cap change or a window closure is a content update that takes effect the same day. The platform also alerts you to what the change does to your own position.
Who owns the data I put in?
You do. The Farm Data Charter gives you a complete export in open formats at any time, and every instance of data sharing requires an explicit, revocable consent that is visible in your account.
Does it work if I farm across a border?
Yes, and that is one of the main reasons the platform exists. A business with land in more than one nation sees one reconciled view rather than two portals, with obligations and deadlines from both administrations in a single calendar.
Can my agronomist or land agent use it too?
Yes. You grant scoped, time-limited access per holding and per module, and you can revoke it in one click. Advisers never get a shared password or a blanket view.
What is the biggest limitation of this module?
Damaging unmapped drains during operations. Mitigated by mapping first. We would rather state that plainly than let you discover it after signing.
See Drainage & Flood running on your own holding
Thirty minutes, using your parcels, your schemes and your enterprises rather than a sample farm. No obligation and no sales script — if it does not fit your business we will say so.
- Free tier available
- No card required
- Your data stays yours