Northern Ireland

The Rivers Agency

The Rivers Agency is an Executive Agency within the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) and is the statutory drainage and flood defence authority for Northern Ireland.  The Agency’s vision is to manage flood risk to facilitate the social, economic and environmental development of Northern Ireland.

The following aims support the vision:

  • Reducing risk to life and damage to property from flooding from rivers and the sea.
  • Undertaking watercourse and coastal flood management in a sustainable manner.

In support of the above, The Rivers Agency’s objectives are to:

  • Deliver sustainable flood risk management policies to meet society’s social, environmental and economic needs
  • Implement the requirements of the European Directive for the assessment and management of flood risk
  • Reduce the number of properties currently at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea
  • Maintain flood defence and drainage infrastructure in a satisfactory condition
  • Operate to resource limits
  • Support and motivate all our people to achieve the Rivers Agency’s objectives
  • Deliver quality services for our customers and stakeholders in a fair and equitable way

JBA assists the Agency in delivering its objectives by providing consultancy services for:

  • Flood modelling and mapping
  • Asset management
  • Undertaking Preliminary Flood Risk Assessments of river basins and coastal zones in Northern Ireland (NB: This work is currently at an advanced stage)
  • Producing detailed Flood Hazard Maps and Flood Risk Maps for areas determined to be at potential significant flood risk
  • Producing Flood Risk Management Plans

JBA is pleased to be working with the Agency at the forefront of sustainable flood risk management and delivering innovative solutions to meeting the requirements of the EU Floods Directive.