Scotland to get new flood alert system

It plans to make the alerts available by text message or phone call to people who have registered for the service from April of next year. The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has signed a five year contract with BT Business and software company HTK to deliver Flood Warnings Direct. Flood warnings in Scotland are currently issued to the police and published on Floodline, an online and recorded message service, in a mainly manual process using phone and fax. Under the new service, Sepa will use mapping technology to define specific flood areas and send alerts to everyone who has register in those areas. Alerts will also be sent to the police, fire and rescue services and local authorities. The public will also be able to find flood information on the internet and via the phone through interactive voice response systems based on speech recognition technology. BT Business is providing the helpdesk and contractual framework, while HTK will provide its Horizon technology platform. Running Horizon through a standard web browser, SEPA will be able to manage flood warnings and tailor their response to the level of threat and the specific target area. Professor James Curran, Sepa's director of science and strategy, said: "This is a significant investment in communications technology which has one purpose, to help people. Together we are building the Floodline Warnings Direct service, which will be at the heart of providing the people of Scotland, at home or in their businesses, with a better flood warning service to help them to take action and reduce the impact of flooding on their lives." Sepa had not provided the value of the contract by time of publication.