drought plan

This project assessed the performance of different types of public water supply systems in England and Wales in a range of droughts, including those that are more severe than the worst droughts in the historical record.

This information was used to identify the relative sensitivity of different supply systems under stress. The results of these ‘stress tests’ will help to improve our understanding of water supply system sensitivity to drought.

Current water resources planning in England and Wales tests the resilience of public water supply systems against the worst historical droughts in the observed record. This approach, however, does not assess how a water supply system would respond when pushed beyond these historical design conditions. This project aimed to understand the performance of different types of water supply systems to a range of droughts, including those that are more severe than the worst case historical droughts,