Research projects

FloodMan

Hosted by: NORUT Information Technology Ltd.
Keywords: Flood, forecasting, EU, satellite

Project description

FloodMan - Near real time flood forecasting, warning and management system based on satellite radar images, hydrological and hydraulic models and in-situ data. EU FP5 project.

Project duration: 2002 – 2005

Objective

The main objective of this project is to develop, demonstrate and validate a prototype information system for cost effective near-real time flood forecasting, warning and management using EO data, in particular space borne Synthetic Aperture Radar data, hydrological and hydraulic models and in-situ data. To achieve the main objective several sub objective are identified:

Sub-objective 1: Develop improved methods for near-real time continuous monitoring of flood extent from EO data, in particular space borne radar data.

Sub-objective 2: Develop techniques and methods to utilise EO and in-situ data in distributed hydrological and hydraulic models.

Sub-objective 3: Develop a generic, distributed scalable prototype water management information system, which integrate information from EO data with in-situ data and model data.

Sub-objective 4: Validation and demonstration of the information system in operational environment.


Problems to be solved

Floods cause large economical losses in many parts of Europe and a lot of people have lost their lives. Among the 100 most expensive natural disasters of the 20th Century, the damage of floods contribute 40% of total amount of loss (including earthquakes , typhoons, storms, fires etc.) which was estimated 680 billion Euro.

Operational flood management and planning of flood protective structures require detailed spatial and temporal information of inundation when flooding is active or in different design flood conditions.

Spaceborne sensors produce valuable information for environmental monitoring and forecasting purposes at different spatial and temporal scale. Due to the high spatial and temporal coverage, satellites have a clear advantage compared to any other source of information. However, during extreme event such as flooding data, from optical sensors are limited by cloud cover. Several studies have documented the potential of using spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radars (SAR) systems which provide information independent of light and weather conditions as a tool for flood monitoring. In recent years, the achievements in information and communication technology has made it possible to acquire, process and distribute information derived from radar satellite to the end users in near real time (hours after the area of interest has been imaged by the sensor). However, spaceborne SAR data for operational near real time monitoring of flood area has not been exploited.


Scientific objectives and approach

The performance and quality of existing operational flood warning services could be significantly improved by using state of the art information and communication technology, in-situ, earth observation, hydrological and hydraulic model data for water management and flood prediction. A number of hydrological and hydraulic models are available for forecasting and simulation of runoff. Utilisation of near real-time information on flood extent combined with risk assessment and model data in an expert system will provide the users with a new an innovative tool in support for flood management and forecasting.


Expected impacts

The successful results of the project will benefit the operative monitoring and management of the water resources by improving the spatial quality of current information and the accuracy of forecasting models. Combining such information with risk assessment data in a distributed GIS environment is innovative and will bring the management of flooding a major step forward.

Source of text, figures and links: FloodMan project website

More information (external link to the project)

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