Measuring the skill of an operational ice jam flood forecasting system

2021 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 102001
Author(s):  
Brandon S. Williams ◽  
Apurba Das ◽  
Peter Johnston ◽  
Bin Luo ◽  
Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt
Keyword(s):  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Ice Jam ◽  
Forecasting System

scholarly journals Development of an Ice Jam Flood Forecasting System for the Lower Oder River—Requirements for Real-Time Predictions of Water, Ice and Sediment Transport

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karl-Erich Lindenschmidt ◽  
Dirk Carstensen ◽  
Wolfgang Fröhlich ◽  
Bernd Hentschel ◽  
Stefan Iwicki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
International Workshop ◽  
Weather Conditions ◽  
Flood Management ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Cold Weather ◽  
Joint Research ◽  
Ice Jams ◽  
Ice Jam ◽  
Forecasting System ◽  
Oder River

Despite ubiquitous warming, the lower Oder River typically freezes over almost every year. Ice jams may occur during freeze-up and ice cover breakup phases, particularly in the middle and lower reaches of the river, with weirs and piers. The slush ice and ice blocks may accumulate to form ice jams, leading to backwater effects and substantial water level rise. The small bottom slope of the lower Oder and the tidal backflow from the Baltic Sea enhance the formation of ice jams during cold weather conditions, jeopardizing the dikes. Therefore, development of an ice jam flood forecasting system for the Oder River is much needed. This commentary presents selected results from an international workshop that took place in Wrocław (Poland) on 26–27 November 2018 that brought together an international team of experts to explore the requirements and research opportunities in the field of ice jam flood forecasting and risk assessment for the Oder River section along the German–Polish border. The workshop launched a platform for collaboration amongst Canadian, German and Polish scientists, government officials and water managers to pave a way forward for joint research focused on achieving the long-term goal of forecasting, assessing and mitigating ice jam impacts along the lower Oder. German and Polish government agencies are in need of new tools to forecast ice jams and assess their subsequent consequences and risks to communities and ship navigation along a river. Addressing these issues will also help research and ice flood management in a Canadian context. A research program would aim to develop a modelling system by addressing fundamental issues that impede the prediction of ice jam events and their consequences in cold regions.

scholarly journals A pan-African medium-range ensemble flood forecast system

2015 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 3365-3385 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Thiemig ◽  
B. Bisselink ◽  
F. Pappenberger ◽  
J. Thielen
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Practical Implication ◽  
River Basins ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Flood Forecast ◽  
Flood Events ◽  
Forecast System ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Forecasting System

Abstract. The African Flood Forecasting System (AFFS) is a probabilistic flood forecast system for medium- to large-scale African river basins, with lead times of up to 15 days. The key components are the hydrological model LISFLOOD, the African GIS database, the meteorological ensemble predictions by the ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Ranged Weather Forecasts) and critical hydrological thresholds. In this paper, the predictive capability is investigated in a hindcast mode, by reproducing hydrological predictions for the year 2003 when important floods were observed. Results were verified by ground measurements of 36 sub-catchments as well as by reports of various flood archives. Results showed that AFFS detected around 70 % of the reported flood events correctly. In particular, the system showed good performance in predicting riverine flood events of long duration (> 1 week) and large affected areas (> 10 000 km2) well in advance, whereas AFFS showed limitations for small-scale and short duration flood events. The case study for the flood event in March 2003 in the Sabi Basin (Zimbabwe) illustrated the good performance of AFFS in forecasting timing and severity of the floods, gave an example of the clear and concise output products, and showed that the system is capable of producing flood warnings even in ungauged river basins. Hence, from a technical perspective, AFFS shows a large potential as an operational pan-African flood forecasting system, although issues related to the practical implication will still need to be investigated.

Development of a Real-Time Flood Forecasting System by Hydraulic Flood Routing

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joo Heon Lee ◽  
Do Hun Lee ◽  
Sang Man Jeong ◽  
Eun Tae Lee
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Flood Routing ◽  
Forecasting System

scholarly journals A Robust Skewed Boxplot for Detecting Outliers in Rainfall Observations in Real-Time Flood Forecasting

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Chao Zhao ◽  
Jinyan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Exponential Function ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Interquartile Range ◽  
Skewed Data ◽  
Symmetric Distributions ◽  
Contaminated Data ◽  
Forecasting System

The standard boxplot is one of the most popular nonparametric tools for detecting outliers in univariate datasets. For Gaussian or symmetric distributions, the chance of data occurring outside of the standard boxplot fence is only 0.7%. However, for skewed data, such as telemetric rain observations in a real-time flood forecasting system, the probability is significantly higher. To overcome this problem, a medcouple (MC) that is robust to resisting outliers and sensitive to detecting skewness was introduced to construct a new robust skewed boxplot fence. Three types of boxplot fences related to MC were analyzed and compared, and the exponential function boxplot fence was selected. Operating on uncontaminated as well as simulated contaminated data, the results showed that the proposed method could produce a lower swamping rate and higher accuracy than the standard boxplot and semi-interquartile range boxplot. The outcomes of this study demonstrated that it is reasonable to use the new robust skewed boxplot method to detect outliers in skewed rain distributions.

Added value of online satellite data transmission for flood forecasting: warning systems in medium-size catchments

2009 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Ruch ◽  
H. Stadler
Keyword(s):  
Satellite Communication ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Added Value ◽  
Medium Size ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Online Data ◽  
Concentration Time ◽  
Forecasting System ◽  
Information Chain ◽  
Leo Satellite

The present paper deals with the implementation of online data transferred via LEO satellite communication in a flood forecasting system. Although the project is ongoing, it is already recognised that the information chain: “measurement—transmission—forecast—alert” can be shortened, i.e., the flood danger can be more rapidly communicated to the population at risk. This gain is particularly valuable for medium size catchments where the concentration time (basin time of response to rainfall) is short.

scholarly journals Assessing the Potential of Upcoming Satellite Altimeter Missions in Operational Flood Forecasting Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (21) ◽  
pp. 4459
Author(s):  
Aline Falck ◽  
Javier Tomasella ◽  
Fabrice Papa
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Lead Time ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Lead Times ◽  
Latency Time ◽  
Distributed Hydrological Model ◽  
Satellite Altimeter ◽  
Operational Characteristics ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Forecasting System

This study investigates the potential of observations with improved frequency and latency time of upcoming altimetry missions on the accuracy of flood forecasting and early warnings. To achieve this, we assessed the skill of the forecasts of a distributed hydrological model by assimilating different historical discharge time frequencies and latencies in a framework that mimics an operational forecast system, using the European Ensemble Forecasting system as the forcing. Numerical experiments were performed in 22 sub-basins of the Tocantins-Araguaia Basin. Forecast skills were evaluated in terms of the Relative Operational Characteristics (ROC) as a function of the drainage area and the forecasts’ lead time. The results showed that increasing the frequency of data collection and reducing the latency time (especially 1 d update and low latency) had a significant impact on steep headwater sub-basins, where floods are usually more destructive. In larger basins, although the increased frequency of data collection improved the accuracy of the forecasts, the potential benefits were limited to the earlier lead times.

scholarly journals Application of data-based mechanistic modelling for flood forecasting at multiple locations in the Eden catchment in the National Flood Forecasting System (England and Wales)

2013 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Leedal ◽  
A. H. Weerts ◽  
P. J. Smith ◽  
K. J. Beven
Keyword(s):  
Warning System ◽  
Open Shell ◽  
Flood Forecasting ◽  
Mechanistic Modelling ◽  
Forecasting Models ◽  
Forecasting System ◽  
Environment Agency ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Modelling Approach

Abstract. The Delft Flood Early Warning System provides a versatile framework for real-time flood forecasting. The UK Environment Agency has adopted the Delft framework to deliver its National Flood Forecasting System. The Delft system incorporates new flood forecasting models very easily using an "open shell" framework. This paper describes how we added the data-based mechanistic modelling approach to the model inventory and presents a case study for the Eden catchment (Cumbria, UK).

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