"PUNCH is delighted that we have an add-on service of hydraulic modelling to our regular civil and structural services. Having an efficient modelling programme such as Flood Modeller has added value to our service offering and meant that we can keep flood modelling work in-house which is valuable to our clients."
Julie Tiernan, Technical Director Civils Infrastructure/Flooding
PUNCH Consulting Engineers, Ireland
Q&A
Can you tell us about PUNCH Consulting Engineers and the services you provide?
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PUNCH Consulting Engineers is one of Ireland’s leading and most experienced engineering consultancies.
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The partnership was established by Michael Punch in 1973 to provide a wide-ranging consultancy service in civil & structural engineering. In this time, it has grown to be one of the largest Irish-owned consultancies, with a diverse client base across an increasingly broad range of sectors of the industry.
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What’s your role within the company?
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I am a Technical Director in our Limerick office, appointed in 2017, leading the Flooding Department. I manage a team of engineers and technicians of all grades responsible for delivering sustainable design solutions on projects where flood risk is an issue. We carry out flood risk assessments at all project stages.
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You’ve used Flood Modeller for many years, why is it your modelling software of choice?
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Our flooding team finds Flood Modeller user-friendly and the customer support provided has been very useful on a number of projects.
What are your challenges and how does Flood Modeller help address them?
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Model stability is always a challenge, and we find that Flood Modeller is great at assisting in identifying the cause of instabilities. The software offers a range of outputs to assess stability and to quantify the impact of instabilities on model accuracy. Flood Modeller also offers a wide range of parameters which can be adjusted to assist in stabilising a model.
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Troubleshooting models can be very time-consuming and each model presents unique challenges. This is where the online support service offered by Flood Modeller is hugely valuable. The support service offers advice and solutions to modelling issues, thus streamlining the trouble shooting process.
How has Flood Modeller enabled you to expand your modelling capabilities and deliver your projects more effectively?
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The ease with which a model can be produced in Flood Modeller means that we use it even for simple tasks, such as checks on channel capacity and velocity. This improves the quality and accuracy of our outputs.
What type of project wouldn’t you have been able to undertake without Flood Modeller?
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Stage 3 Site Specific Flood Risk Assessments, which may include hydraulic modelling of adjacent watercourses and consideration of proposed surface water drainage arrangements at the developed site, and Section 50 applications are where we utilise Flood Modeller the most.
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What would you tell someone who's considering Flood Modeller?
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The training courses and customer support that we have received from Flood Modeller staff have always been excellent. The annual renewal process is also streamlined and efficient.
In your opinion, what are the main benefits of Flood Modeller over other software?
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The ability to utilise GIS spatial data when constructing a model assists in visualising the river network. The model build process is intuitive.
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The huge variety of model outputs assists in identifying model stability issues.
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The online support service streamlines the model build and stabilising process.
How does Flood Modeller provide more value to your company?
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PUNCH is delighted that we have an add-on service of hydraulic modelling to our regular civil and structural services. Having an efficient modelling programme such as Flood Modeller has added value to our service offering and meant that we can keep flood modelling work in-house which is valuable to our clients.
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What’s next in your flood modelling journey?
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We plan to build our flood modelling team and provide further Flood Modeller training to our staff to expand our resources for additional hydraulic modelling work. We also feel that it is beneficial and enjoyable for staff to expand their training in such areas.