Automated flash flood warning systems

The hazard of flash flooding, affecting both remote upland stream valleys and urbanizing metropolitan watersheds, poses a need for rapid identification and analysis of sudden changes in stream flow to allow timely public warning. Since 1976, the US National Weather Service (NWS), in cooperation with various regional authorities, has developed a new, low-cost system in response to this need. This system, known as ALERT (Automated Local Evaluation in Real Time) employs stream and rain gauges equipped with self-activating radio transmitters which communicate with a central microcomputer. Using software calibrated to the watershed in question, predictions of downstream flood levels may be rapidly generated. This paper reviews the origins and technology of ALERT systems and reports on the experiences to date of 32 system users. The survey found a high level of satisfaction with ALERT, but uncertainty concerning the reliability of the systems, since few have yet been tested in actual flash floods.     

Epiphytic diatoms as flood indicators

The hydroecology of floodplain lakes is strongly regulated by flood events. The threat of climate warming and increasing human activities requires development of scientific methods to quantify changes in the frequency of short-lived flood events, because they remain difficult to identify using conventional paleolimnological and monitoring approaches. We developed an approach to detect floods in sediment records by comparing the abundance and composition of epiphytic diatom communities in flooded and non-flooded ponds of the Peace-Athabasca Delta (PAD), Canada, that grew on submerged macrophytes (Potamogeton zosteriformis, P. perfoliatus) and an artificial substrate (polypropylene sheets) during the open-water season of 2005. Analysis of similarity tests showed that epiphytic diatom community composition differs significantly between flooded and non-flooded ponds. After accounting for the “pond effect,” paired comparisons of the three substrates determined that variation in community composition between the artificial substrate and macrophytes was similar to that between the macrophyte taxa. Similarity percentage analysis identified diatom taxa that discriminate between flooded and non-flooded ponds. The relative abundance of ‘strong flood indicator taxa’ was used to construct an event-scale flood record spanning the past 180 years using analyses of sedimentary diatom assemblages from a closed-drainage pond (PAD 5). Results were verified by close agreement with an independent paleoflood record from a nearby flood-prone oxbow pond (PAD 54) and historical records. Comparison of epiphytic diatoms in flooded and non-flooded lakes in this study provides a promising approach to detect changes in flood frequency, and may have applications for reconstructing other pulse-type disturbances such as hurricanes and pollutant spills.     

Farmers＇ vulnerability to flood risk： A case study in the Poyang Lake Region

This paper quantitatively explores farmers＇ vulnerability to flood in the Poyang Lake Region （PLR） with the supports of GIS spatial functions. The analysis consists of three major steps, which is based on the spatial unit of township. Firstly, the spatial extent and characteristics of flood risk areas were determined using a digital elevation model （DEM） derived from the 1：50,000 topographic map. Secondly, for each of the township, six indices indicating the economic activities of local farmers were calculated. These indices are： rural population proportion, cultivated land proportion, GDP per unit area, employment proportion of primary industry, net rural income per capita and agricultural income proportion. These six indices were then normalized and used for later vulnerability assessment. Thirdly, the normalized indices （as GIS data layers） were overlaid with the flood risk areas to produce the risk coefficient for each township and to calculate the overall vulnerability for each township. The analysis results show that in the PLR there are high flood risk areas where the farmers＇ livings are seriously influenced or threatened. About 55.56% of the total 180 townships in the flood risk areas have a high degree of flood vulnerability. The townships under flood risk are mainly distributed in the areas around the Poyang Lake and the areas along the ＂five rivers＂.     

城市暴雨积涝灾害风险突增效应研究进展

城市暴雨积涝风险突增效应研究对揭示此类风险与人类活动所导致的城市化过程的关系,及用于城市地区灾害风险识别及风险预警均有重要价值。本文从城市因素(地表粗糙度、气溶胶及城市热岛等)影响城市地区降水过程,以及城市地区土地利用和土地覆盖变化(LUCC)影响城市地表水文反应过程2个方面综合论述风险突增效应研究的进展及主要结论。在研究方法上,总结了现有文献所用的暴雨危险性的主要评估模型,认为暴雨危险性计算需要结合雨强及暴雨持续时间。城市地表对暴雨积涝的敏感性分析需借助城市水文模型;在模型分析过程中,应注重雨量数据的有效性,以及城市排水管网、土地利用和土地覆盖等资料的可获取性及概化。为定量评估城市暴雨积涝风险突增效应,需要使用更高时空分辨率的数据资料分析暴雨危险性特征,通过细化及发展城市水文模型,完成敏感性实验分析;在此基础上,综合危险性及敏感性特征,评估城市地区暴雨积涝风险,揭示暴雨积涝风险在城市地区的空间分布差异及风险突增效应。相关成果可用于城市暴雨积涝的风险识别、评估、预警及风险管理。     

Configurations of community in flood risk management

ABSTRACT

Despite a notable increase in the literature on community resilience, the notion of ‘community’ remains underproblematised. This is evident within flood risk management (FRM) literature, in which the understanding and roles of communities may be acknowledged but seldom discussed in any detail. The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how community networks are configured by different actors, whose roles and responsibilities span spatial scales within the context of FRM. Accordingly, the authors analyse findings from semi-structured interviews, policy documents, and household surveys from two flood prone areas in Finnish Lapland. The analysis reveals that the ways in which authorities, civil society, and informal actors take on multiple roles are intertwined and form different types of networks. By implication, the configuration of community is fuzzy, elusive and situated, and not confined to a fixed spatiality. The authors discuss the implications of the complex nature of community for FRM specifically, and for community resilience more broadly. They conclude that an analysis of different actors across scales contributes to an understanding of the configuration of community, including community resilience, and how the meaning of community takes shape according to the differing aims of FRM in combination with differing geographical settings.     

基于树轮地貌学的山洪研究进展

山洪是中国主要的自然灾害之一,严重威胁山区人民生命财产与工程建设安全。针对山洪已发展了多种多样的研究手段,但多集中于过去几十年的时间段内。树轮地貌学方法作为研究历史山洪事件的有效手段之一,在世界范围内被广泛应用。利用树轮中的生长干扰信息,可以对山洪事件进行精确定年,重建无记录或少记录地区内山洪发生的频率、大小和空间分布特征等,根据伤疤的高度或应用水力模型则可以定量重建山洪的流量大小。随着树轮地貌学方法和技术的逐渐成熟,研究趋向于探讨山洪的驱动机制、更大空间尺度山洪的规律性等,具有广阔的应用前景,但是基于树轮的山洪研究工作在国内还未见报道。论文对树轮地貌学应用于山洪研究的发展过程进行了系统回顾,对研究进展进行了简要概述,最后讨论该研究领域的潜力及局限性,以期为在国内进一步开展相关工作提供参考信息。     

Accounting for variability in commercial flood damage estimation

Flooding in the business district of Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia, in 2001 allowed the collection and analysis of commercial flood damage data. Analysis indicated that direct losses were significant, totalling A$2.5 million. Data were variable owing to differences in the vulnerability of businesses to flood damage, differences in the impacts of the hazard upon businesses and survey uncertainty. Little direct relationship was found between direct commercial damage and over-floor water depth. Simple averaging and stage-damage curve loss estimation methods ignore the large variability present and result in inaccurate estimation of direct commercial damage. Probability loss estimation methods account for the variability present by assessing the chance of loss values occurring at specified depths of over-floor flooding.     

区域洪水灾害风险格局演变分析——以马来西亚吉兰丹州为例

准确了解区域洪水灾害风险演变状况及规律,对于洪水灾害预警与管理具有重要意义。本文利用1990年和2000年洪水灾害风险等级数据和风险指数数据,分析了10年来区域洪水灾害风险演变规律。研究表明:(1)1990~2000年10年之间,研究区的洪水灾害风险在空间分布格局及时间演变过程上都发生了显著变化。(2)高风险区与较高风险区的面积在增加,较低风险区、中等风险区的面积在逐渐减少,这是区域洪水灾害风险等级结构变化最突出的特征。(3)区域洪水灾害风险等级之间的不对等转化是各种风险等级结构特征发生实质性变化的主要原因。(4)2000年区域洪水灾害风险较1990年高,整个区域洪水灾害风险在增加,但局部地区洪水灾害风险变化不一。(5)区域洪水灾害风险演变的本质就是风险等级类型结构和功能的自组织,对于揭示洪水灾害演变的普遍现象和机制具有重要意义。     

British Columbia flood scars: maximum flood-stage indicators

Flood scars, abundant along rivers of heavily forested northern British Columbia, provide records of flood occurrence and magnitude in a region with few and relatively short gaging records. Log transport during floods is episodic and occurs almost immediately preceding and during peak stage. Impact wounds form during this transport stage. Many of these logs are sequestered in bankside vegetation where they form abrasion wounds on trees by rubbing up and down in the turbulent waters.From May 30 through June 2, 1990, an approximate 9-year nival flood occurred on the Skeena River at Cedarvale, B.C. This flood damaged many trees within a few tree spacings of the bank margin. Immediately after the flood, the peak-stage line along 170 m of shoreline was marked. In September, 1992, 48 flood-scarred trees were selected and their locations and flood-scar heights surveyed. The mean height of the top of the flood scars sampled is 20 ± 3 cm below the peak stage on the adjacent bank. Flood-scar heights range from + 9 to − 80 cm compared to the peak stage on the adjacent bank. A regression line for the floodscar top elevations is roughly parallel to the peak-stage elevations along the shoreline and approximately 20 cm below it.Data from Usk, the nearest gaging station on the Skeena River, demonstrate that the stage was high enough to form the flood scars for only 24 to 36 hours. Most of the flood scars had to form in less than 24 hours. Field observations suggest that the time of flood-scar formation was even more restricted.     

Constrction of watershed flood disaster management information system and its application to the catastrophic flood of the Yangtze River in 1998

lintroductionFlooddi~rbringsaboutgreatdamagestopropellesandseriouslossoflives.InChina,onetenthofterritory,500billionPeople,3300X104haofculhvatedland.morethan100largeandndddiecihesand70%ofindusthalandagricultoloutputvaluearethreatenedbyfloodings'l.Watershedflooddisastermanagementconcernsmonitoringandforecastingflood,assessingtheflooddamageandfloodcontrolanddiSasterreduchondecision-makinginthescopeofthewholewatershed.RemotesensingandGeographicalinfonnahonSystemarepowerfultoolstoconstIUctWate…     

河谷土地利用格局与洪水干扰的关系

土地和水是人类赖以生存的两大资源。随着经济的发展和人口的增加,在河谷地区人水争地的矛盾愈来愈突出。此文基于生态学、地貌学、水文学等学科在河谷土地利用与洪水关系方面的研究成果,从生态学的角度概括和总结了河道整治、河岸带开发、河谷内人工构筑体与河流属性及洪水的关系,介绍了有关河流生态恢复研究的现状和趋势。提出运用景观生态学原理开展土地利用格局与洪水减灾和利用的研究,向自然界学习,对处理好土地利用与洪水关系有重要意义。     

Sustainable flood management: oxymoron or new paradigm?

The existing paradigm of UK flood risk management that privileges structural solutions over non-structural ones is evolving in response to threats posed by climate change and higher environmental standards required by the EC Water Framework Directive. This paper examines the contrasting reactions of DEFRA and the Scottish Executive. The Scottish 'experiment', which embraces a strong definition of sustainability, is contrasted with a weaker version emerging in England and Wales. Divergent levels of risk and histories of managing that risk explain many of these contrasts. Scotland's more radical approach has the potential to become a new paradigm.     

中国短时洪涝灾害危险性评估与验证

基于自然灾害风险理论、借助GIS空间分析功能、采用归一化和层次分析法,对中国全国范围尺度进行短时洪涝灾害危险性评估。通过对洪涝灾害危险性因子分析,分别提取当天降雨量、前三天降雨量、地形高程、地形标准差、河湖网络等因素作为评估因子,提出了各因子危险性指数计算方法,以及全国洪涝灾害危险性指数计算模型公式,根据统计分析危险指数的最小值、最大值,结合历史灾情,利用阈值分割法确定危险等级分割值为0.3、0.45及0.6,将洪涝灾害危险等级划分为高危险、中危险、低危险与无危险四个等级,从而建立类似于天气预报模式的全国洪涝灾害危险性评估模型,并以2009年9月14日为例进行了洪涝灾害危险等级评估的实际应用。最后,本文提出了基于昨日灾情的危险性评估结果验证方法,通过整理同期昨日灾情资料构建灾情数据库,对2009年汛期的洪涝灾害危险性评估结果分别从数量和面积两个角度,基于县和地市两级行政区划作为验证单元进行验证。验证结果表明,洪涝灾害危险性评估结果无论是从数量上还是从面积上看均具有较高的正确率,与实际灾情基本吻合。     

Color map design for visualization in flood risk assessment

Visualizations of flood maps from simulation models are widely used for assessing the likelihood of flood hazards in spatial planning. The choice of a suitable type of visualization as well as efficient color maps is critical to avoid errors or bias when interpreting the data. Based on a review of previous flood uncertainty visualization techniques, this paper identifies areas of improvements and suggests criteria for the design of a task-specific color scale in flood map visualization. We contribute a novel color map design for visualizing probabilities and uncertainties from flood simulation ensembles. A user study encompassing 83 participants was carried out to evaluate the effects of this new color map on user’s decisions in a spatial planning task. We found that the type of visualization makes a difference when it comes to identification of non-hazardous sites in the flood risk map and when accepting risks in more uncertain areas. In comparison with two other existing visualization techniques, we observed that the new design was superior both in terms of task compliance and efficiency. In regions with uncertain flood statuses, users were biased toward accepting less risky locations with our new color map design.     

Past flood events reflected in Holocene floodplain records of East-Germany

The sediment archives in lakes and mires formed by salt solution within the floodplain of the Middle Werra river were used to detect effects of climate and landuse changes on the sedimentation regime of the river by means of high-resolution sedimentological and palynological methods. All archives of the Middle Werra valley show similar sedimentation sequences which are mainly influenced by climate until the Middle Ages and mostly affected by human activity between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. The likelihood of climatic influences in terms of wetter conditions is especially given by a clear increase of indicators for floodplain forest, reed communities and aquatics in combination with decreasing human landuse indicators in the investigation area.In addition, the palynological results show that the sediment input in these depressions is higher both during periods with wetter conditions and with increased human impact in the catchment. According to the fact, that during flood events the river is hydrological connected with these depressions, the minerogenic layers are suspected to be delivered during floods.     

GIS技术支持下的洪水模型建模

在复杂区域建立洪水模型时,计算网格的手工生成方法容易出错甚至不可行,自动生成算法则可大大节省计算网格生成的工作量。洪水模型中的计算网格与GIS栅格数据及不规则三角网空间数据结构非常相似,因此,GIS中成熟的网格自动生成算法可用于生成洪水模型计算网格。文章详细讨论了GIS支持下的洪水模型自动建立步骤,并以黄河下游花园口～夹河滩河段为例,利用地形图、土地利用图、水利工程设施分布、水文站点图等资料,通过自动生成网格及其空间拓扑关系,建立了洪水过程数值模拟模型,并详细解释了计算网格数据格式。     

淮河流域洪涝变化的耗散性

混沌理论中,人们提出了一些非线性复杂现象的分析方法。在这些方法的启发下,我们曾研究了淮河流域洪涝变化的分形特征和混沌性。在先前研究的基础上,该文以淮河流域洪涝变化为对象,通过表征相空间轨道附近平均收缩(发散)特征的Lyapunov指数,定量地分析和论证了淮河流域洪涝变化的耗散性。淮河流域洪涝变化耗散性的定量论证标志着在地理系统非线性研究方面进行了新的尝试和探索     

Visualisation and evaluation of flood uncertainties based on ensemble modelling

This study evaluates how users incorporate visualisation of flood uncertainty information in decision-making. An experiment was conducted where participants were given the task to decide building locations, taking into account homeowners’ preferences as well as dilemmas imposed by flood risks at the site. Two general types of visualisations for presenting uncertainties from ensemble modelling were evaluated: (1) uncertainty maps, which used aggregated ensemble results; and (2) performance bars showing all individual simulation outputs from the ensemble. Both were supplemented with either two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) contextual information, to give an overview of the area.

The results showed that the type of uncertainty visualisation was highly influential on users’ decisions, whereas the representation of the contextual information (2D or 3D) was not. Visualisation with performance bars was more intuitive and effective for the task performed than the uncertainty map. It clearly affected users’ decisions in avoiding certain-to-be-flooded areas. Patterns to which the distances were decided from the homeowners’ preferred positions and the uncertainties were similar, when the 2D and 3D map models were used side by side with the uncertainty map. On the other hand, contextual information affected the time to solve the task. With the 3D map, it took the participants longer time to decide the locations, compared with the other combinations using the 2D model.

Designing the visualisation so as to provide more detailed information made respondents avoid dangerous decisions. This has also led to less variation in their overall responses.     

Uncertain seas: probabilistic modeling of future coastal flood zones

ABSTRACT

Future sea-level rise will likely expand the inland extent of storm surge inundation and, in turn, increase the vulnerability of the people, properties and economies of coastal communities. Modeling future storm surge inundation enhanced by sea-level rise uses numerous data sources with inherent uncertainties. There is uncertainty in (1) hydrodynamic storm surge models, (2) future sea-level rise projections, and (3) topographic digital elevation models representing the height of the coastal land surface. This study implemented a Monte Carlo approach to incorporate the uncertainties of these data sources and model the future 1% flood zone extent in the Tottenville neighborhood of New York City (NYC) in a probabilistic, geographical information science (GIS) framework. Generated spatiotemporal statistical products indicate a range of possible future flood zone extents that results from the uncertainties of the data sources and from the terrain itself. Small changes in the modeled land and water heights within the estimated uncertainties of the data sources results in larger uncertainty in the future flood zone extent in low-lying areas with smaller terrain slope. An interactive web map, UncertainSeas.com, visualizes these statistical products and can inform coastal management policies to reduce the vulnerability of Tottenville, NYC to future coastal inundation.     

Simple spatially-distributed models for predicting flood inundation: A review

In this paper we review recent progress in the use of reduced complexity models for predicting floodplain inundation. We review the theoretical basis for modelling floodplain flow with simplified hydraulic treatments based on a dimensional analysis of the one-dimensional shallow water equations. We then review how such schemes can be applied in practice and consider issues of space discretization, time discretization and model parameterisation, before going on to consider model assessment procedures. We show that a key advantage of reduced complexity codes is that they force modellers to think about the minimum process representation necessary to predict particular quantities and act as a check on any tendency to reductionism. At the same time, however, the use (compared to standard hydraulic codes) of strong simplifying assumptions requires us to also address the question “how simple can a model be and still be physically realistic?” We show that by making explicit this debate about acceptable levels of abstraction, reduced complexity codes allow progress to be made in addressing a number of long-standing debates in hydraulics.