First piece of FDRI equipment installed

The FDRI project has reached a very exciting major milestone; on 19 May 2025 upgrades were added to the trapezoidal flume system in the Hafren Forest area of the upper Severn catchment, the first pieces of equipment installed under FDRI. 

This is the culmination of months of hard work. The team originally visited the site in early February 2025 to conduct signal test assessments, assess the access to the site, clean the existing equipment and check the condition of the network of flumes. Behind the scenes the UKCEH Bangor team also worked with Natural Resources Wales to  ensure continuous collaboration in accessing and maintaining the flumes. This was followed by a further visit in early April to carry out an evaluation of the site for the upgrade and clear the stilling wells across the catchment.

Finally, the team conducted a full week of fieldwork from 19-23 May to install the upgraded water level system. This involved putting in new power supplies, a new telemetry system and the addition of a pressure transducer and radar system, which is innovative and novel for this system.  This new system allows the transmission of real-time data from the flume, these new data are already flowing through to our digital team. The old unidata encoder which had been measuring the water level system is still in place to allow us to compare the new data against historic data. 

Never ones to miss an opportunity, the team also conducted a preliminary site visit during the installation week to explore upgrading the automatic weather system at Carreg Wen, as well as beginning discussions with landowners in the area about other potential sites. The team also performed low flow gauging following the recent dry weather at eight sites in the catchment, including at the flume site. 

The FDRI team are thrilled to be at this exciting stage of the project, and we look forward to bringing you more updates about new equipment being installed over the coming months.