Drainage, Flood Risk & Natural Flood Management
Drainage & Flood: For Advisers & Agents
What Drainage & Flood changes for agronomists, agents, vets and consultants.
Advisers need scoped access, defensible records and a way to work across a client base without re-keying. Field drainage determines workable days, yield stability and machinery damage, and it is almost always undocumented — the plans are in a drawer or lost. This module maps the drainage system, plans maintenance and renewal, assesses flood risk to land and buildings, and appraises natural flood management interventions that now attract funding in their own right.
In their words
What the job actually looks like
These are not marketing personas. Each one is a distinct job with a distinct constraint, and the module is designed so that solving one does not create work for the others.
Catchment partnership
Natural flood management
Needs coordinated intervention siting across multiple holdings.
- Locate and map the existing system
- Assess performance field by field
- Prioritise maintenance and renewal
- Appraise the investment case
Drainage contractor
Installation and maintenance
Needs an accurate existing-system map to work from.
- Assess performance field by field
- Prioritise maintenance and renewal
- Appraise the investment case
- Assess flood risk and set up warnings
Floodplain farmer
Regular inundation
Needs warning, response planning and a funded alternative land use.
- Prioritise maintenance and renewal
- Appraise the investment case
- Assess flood risk and set up warnings
- Design natural flood management where funded
End to end
How Drainage & Flood runs, start to finish
The module is modelled as a state machine, so at any point the business knows exactly which stage every record is at and what has to happen next.
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1
Locate and map the existing system
This is where the record starts, and getting it right here removes work at every later stage.
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2
Assess performance field by field
The platform prompts only for what this stage genuinely needs, and carries everything forward.
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3
Prioritise maintenance and renewal
Conflicts with scheme rules, regulatory windows and existing commitments are flagged here rather than discovered later.
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4
Appraise the investment case
Capture works offline, so this stage is completed in the field rather than remembered afterwards.
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5
Assess flood risk and set up warnings
Everything recorded at this point becomes evidence automatically, in every format that will later ask for it.
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6
Design natural flood management where funded
This is the stage most businesses currently do twice, once for the operation and once for the paperwork.
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7
Deliver and record works
Results feed the whole-farm view, so the effect of this stage is visible against the rest of the business.
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8
Monitor performance and workable days
The cycle closes here, and what is learned is carried into next season's plan rather than lost.
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
Obligation 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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Worked example
How a business like yours would use Drainage & Flood
The problem: Needs to know where the drains actually are before spending on renewal.
What they do
- Locate and map the existing system
- Assess performance field by field
- Prioritise maintenance and renewal
- Appraise the investment case
What changes
- Drainage system mapped
- Workable days gained
- Wet spots resolved
This is an illustrative worked example built from the module design, not a customer reference. Named case studies are published only with the business's written consent.
What we are hearing
The problems people describe to us
These are composite statements drawn from user research conversations, not attributed customer quotes. We publish named references only with written consent.
I am not short of software. I am short of one place where the same field means the same thing in all of it.
The scheme closed on a Tuesday evening. I had the application half built. Nobody told me the budget was nearly gone.
We farm on both sides of the border. Everything takes twice as long and I still cannot see the whole position on one screen.
Audit week costs me three days. Every single record they ask for is already written down somewhere on this farm.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
The module reports against these measures from the day it is switched on, so the value is demonstrable rather than assumed.
- 01Drainage system mapped
- 02Workable days gained
- 03Wet spots resolved
- 04Flood events with an executed response plan
- 05NFM storage volume created
Free tool
Run the numbers for your own holding
Enter your figures and get an answer you can act on, with the method shown so you can check it. Save the result to your account or take it away as a PDF.