Concept development of all-new flood protection system

Abstract

Flood is a common nature disaster, and among all occurring disasters, flood is the one leading to biggest economic losses in Norway. Aquafence, which is the company that have requested this work, is a Norwegian company in the process of developing an all-new temporary flood protection system. A temporary flood protection system is a moveable water barrier. AquaFence aims at introducing their new system in 2020. The project is in the early stages of development, and this report is a contribution to the process. The work highlights a systematic approach on how to identify and solve requirements for a new temporary flood protection system, and it presents novel solutions to meet these demands. During an exploration of the existing market, areas were discovered that the available temporary flood protection systems do not cover. The temporary flood protection market anno spring 2015 is in the need of satisfying solutions regarding rapid deployment combined with a sufficient protection height. To deal with identified issues, ten different concepts are presented which all have solutions that could contribute in the development of a new temporary flood protection system. Novel solutions like the design of the presented free-standing V-barrier ascertain the ability of a rapid deployment. For a system to have the capability of being rapidly deployed, the possibility of including preconnected parts to the flood protection system was examined. The preconnected modules should either be light weighted or have wheels which gives them the possibility to be pulled out in numbers and in that way provide a rapid solution.