Welcome to I-STORM!

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The challenge

Storm surge barriers exist and are being developed around the world to reduce the risk of severe flooding to people, property and places. These barriers are unique structures that require personnel with specialist knowledge to operate and maintain them, so the barrier can be relied upon to perform whenever it is called into action.

However, as storm surge barrier assets age, the maintenance challenges grow. Personnel change brings a risk of losing valuable tacit knowledge and awareness of important decisions that were made at design stage.

With a changing climate and sea level rise there is growing pressure on barriers to operate more frequently, and more countries are considering developing new barriers to protect communities in the future.

To deal with all these challenges, barriers need to continuously adapt and improve ways of working, including exploring how to use new technologies. As asset management is an evolving field, it’s essential to learn from each other at an international level, so these important assets continue to perform at their very best.

I-STORM was established in 2006 to connect specialists who are involved with storm surge barriers around the world, so they can learn and work together to deal with these challenges collectively.

“We have benefited from I-STORM membership in many ways over the years. It’s particularly valuable now, to help us deal with the challenge of moving from construction to establishing management and operational phase.”

Giovanni Zarotti
Technical Director, CVN (MOSE System)

About us

I-STORM seeks to create a world better protected from tidal flooding. We aim to achieve this by reducing the risks of storm surges and flooding to property, places and most importantly people, both now and in the future. Our network brings together storm surge barrier professionals from all around the world. By facilitating knowledge exchange, resource development and collaboration between our members, we help them to deal with common challenges at an international level and enable the continuous improvement in design, management, maintenance and performance of storm surge barriers internationally.

Our international knowledge sharing network is for all those working in the storm surge barrier industry. Over recent years our membership structure has evolved, to include all those organisations that have a part to play in achieving reliable storm surge barriers. From flood management organisations that operate storm surge barriers to contractors, universities, research bodies and partner organisations. As our membership continues to grow, so does our range of knowledge sharing activities. Learn more about our network developments on our History page.

Our network is led by a Strategic Board and a Delivery Board. The boards include representatives from Italy, the Netherlands, UK and USA. They are responsible for setting (and helping to deliver) our aims, to meet the needs of our members.

Our aims

To reduce the risk of severe flooding around the world, we enable our members to share their knowledge, experience, research and developments by bringing them together to collaborate on joint projects and develop resources, which can be used by everyone in the network.

In this way our members can:

improve

continuously improve the design, operation, maintenance and management of storm surge barriers.

inform

inform each other about how to improve the design and development of new barriers and how to strive towards continuous improvement of existing barriers and its teams.

optimise

optimise the operations of barriers within Flood Risk Systems.

understand

understand the impacts of environmental factors on storm surge barriers to help anticipate and adapt to future challenges.

History

Over the years I-STORM has evolved to a network for all those organisations that have a part to play in achieving reliable storm surge barriers. Learn more about our history here.

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Initiatives

I-STORM runs a variety of activities to enable our members to exchange knowledge and collaborate internationally.

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