An integrated system for forecasting Arno River flash floods

A system for effectively forecasting flash floods of the Arno River (Tuscany, Italy) should provide a flood warning with 10–12 h of lead time, primarily in order to evacuate the city of Florence. This goal may be achieved by acquiring and processing meteorological and hydrological data in real-time and, accordingly, by releasing alarms at different levels of reliability and concern. Through the application of both procedural language and expert system techniques, a prototype was developed which can readily handle a variety of relevant information and make predictions on flood hazard in Florence. The system was fairly successfully tested by processing simple meteorological data which enable a 24 hour forewarning to be released.