scholarly journals Application of the GPM-IMERG Products in Flash Flood Warning: A Case Study in Yunnan, China

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 1954 ◽  
Author(s):  
Meihong Ma ◽  
Huixiao Wang ◽  
Pengfei Jia ◽  
Guoqiang Tang ◽  
Dacheng Wang ◽  
...  

NASA’s Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) is a major source of precipitation data, having a larger coverage, higher precision, and a higher spatiotemporal resolution than previous products, such as the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM). However, there rarely has been an application of IMERG products in flash flood warnings. Taking Yunnan Province as the typical study area, this study first evaluated the accuracy of the near-real-time IMERG Early run product (IMERG-E) and the post-real-time IMERG Final run product (IMERG-F) with a 6-hourly temporal resolution. Then the performance of the two products was analyzed with the improved Rainfall Triggering Index (RTI) in the flash flood warning. Results show that (1) IMERG-F presents acceptable accuracy over the study area, with a relatively high hourly correlation coefficient of 0.46 and relative bias of 23.33% on the grid, which performs better than IMERG-E; and (2) when the RTI model is calibrated with the gauge data, the IMERG-F results matched well with the gauge data, indicating that it is viable to use MERG-F in flash flood warnings. However, as the flash flood occurrence increases, both gauge and IMERG-F data capture fewer flash flood events, and IMERG-F overestimates actual precipitation. Nevertheless, IMERG-F can capture more flood events than IMERG-E and can contribute to improving the accuracy of the flash flood warnings in Yunnan Province and other flood-prone areas.

Water ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1571 ◽  
Author(s):  
Song ◽  
Park ◽  
Lee ◽  
Park ◽  
Song

The runoff from heavy rainfall reaches urban streams quickly, causing them to rise rapidly. It is therefore of great importance to provide sufficient lead time for evacuation planning and decision making. An efficient flood forecasting and warning method is crucial for ensuring adequate lead time. With this objective, this paper proposes an analysis method for a flood forecasting and warning system, and establishes the criteria for issuing urban-stream flash flood warnings based on the amount of rainfall to allow sufficient lead time. The proposed methodology is a nonstructural approach to flood prediction and risk reduction. It considers water level fluctuations during a rainfall event and estimates the upstream (alert point) and downstream (confluence) water levels for water level analysis based on the rainfall intensity and duration. We also investigate the rainfall/runoff and flow rate/water level relationships using the Hydrologic Engineering Center’s Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) and the HEC’s River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) models, respectively, and estimate the rainfall threshold for issuing flash flood warnings depending on the backwater state based on actual watershed conditions. We present a methodology for issuing flash flood warnings at a critical point by considering the effects of fluctuations in various backwater conditions in real time, which will provide practical support for decision making by disaster protection workers. The results are compared with real-time water level observations of the Dorim Stream. Finally, we verify the validity of the flash flood warning criteria by comparing the predicted values with the observed values and performing validity analysis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.32) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Stella N. Mbau ◽  
Vinesh Thiruchelvam

This paper aims to present the need for sub-systems in rural Africa for real-time warning delivery. It has been reported in previous studies, that Sub-Sahara Africa lacks weather radars. This means that there are no real-time early warnings presenting a gap in knowledge that this study aims to address. This is done through the following objective; to examine the relationship between variables in the study and therefore, establish whether sub-systems are a significant variable in flash flood warning systems for rural Africa. The variables to be examined are; the independent variable (existing warning system), the dependent variable (early warnings), the moderator variable (ancillary elements) and the mediator variable (sub-systems). This is investigated through a closed-ended questionnaire that is administered to a sample of meteorologists whose email addresses are available on the World Meteorological Organization’s expert database. The target sample is determined through the G*Power application. The data is analyzed on SPSS. Variables in the study are found to be correlated after conducting a Pearson’s correlation test. Using PROCESS allows for the testing of various models where moderation is confirmed. A moderated mediation model is also confirmed. The results confirm that sub-systems are significant enough to be developed for rural Africa.  


Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 1667 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong T. Nguyen ◽  
Trung Q. Duong ◽  
Liem D. Nguyen ◽  
Tram Q.N. Vo ◽  
Nhat T. Tran ◽  
...  

Vu Gia-Thu Bon (VGTB) river basin is an area where flash flood and heavy flood events occur frequently, negatively impacting the local community and socio-economic development of Quang Nam Province. In recent years, structural and non–structural solutions have been implemented to mitigate damages due to floods. However, under the impact of climate change, natural disasters continue to happen unpredictably day by day. It is, therefore, necessary to develop a spatial decision support system for real-time flood warnings in the VGTB river basin, which will support in ensuring the area’s socio-economic development. The main purpose of this study is to develop an online flood warning system in real-time based on Internet-of-Things (IoT) technologies, GIS, telecommunications, and modeling (Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) and Hydrologic Engineering Center’s River Analysis System (HEC–RAS)) in order to support the local community in the vulnerable downstream areas in the event of heavy rainfall upstream. The structure of the designed system consists of these following components: (1) real-time hydro-meteorological monitoring network, (2) IoT communication infrastructure (Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), wireless networks), (3) database management system (bio-physical, socio-economic, hydro-meteorological, and inundation), (4) simulating and predicting model (SWAT, HEC–RAS), (5) automated simulating and predicting module, (6) flood warning module via short message service (SMS), (7) WebGIS, application for providing and managing hydro-meteorological and inundation data, and (8) users (citizens and government officers). The entire operating processes of the flood warning system (i.e., hydro-meteorological data collecting, transferring, updating, processing, running SWAT and HEC–RAS, visualizing) are automated. A complete flood warning system for the VGTB river basin has been developed as an outcome of this study, which enables the prediction of flood events 5 h in advance and with high accuracy of 80%.


Author(s):  
Nova Ahmed ◽  
Md. Sirajul Islam ◽  
Sifat Kalam ◽  
Farzana Islam ◽  
Nabila Chowdhury ◽  
...  

Background: The North-Eastern part of Bangladesh is suffering from flash flood very frequently, causing colossal damage to life and properties, especially the vast croplands. A distributed sensing system can monitor the water level on a continuous basis to warn people near the riverbank beforehand and reduce the damage largely. However, the required communication infrastructure is not available in most of the remote rural areas in a developing country like Bangladesh. Objective: This study intends to develop a low-cost sensor based warning system, customizing to the Bangladesh context. Method: The system utilizes a low-cost ultrasound based sensor device, a lightweight mobile phone based server, low-cost IoT sensing nodes, and a central server for continuous monitoring of river stage data along with the provision of storage and long-term data analytics. Results: A flash flood warning system developed afterward with the sensors, mobile-based server, and appropriate webbased interfaces. The device was tested for some environmental conditions in the lab and deployed it later in the outdoor conditions for short-term periods. Conclusion: Overall, the warning system performed well in the lab as well as the outdoor environment, with the ability to detect water level at reasonable accuracy and transmit data to the server in real time. Some minor shortcomings still noted with the scope for improvements, which are in the way to improve further.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie Demargne ◽  
Catherine Fouchier ◽  
Didier Organde ◽  
Olivier Piotte ◽  
Anne Belleudy

<p align="justify"><span>Since March 2017, t</span><span>he French flash flood warning system, Vigicrues Flash, provides warnings for small-to-medium ungauged basins for about 10,000 municipalities to help emergency services better mitigate potential impacts of ongoing and upcoming flash flood events. Set up by the Ministry in charge of Environment, this system complements flood warnings produced by the Vigicrues procedure for French monitored rivers. Based on a discharge-threshold flood warning method called AIGA, Vigicrues Flash currently ingests radar-gauge rainfall grids at a 1-km resolution into a conceptual distributed rainfall-runoff model. Real-time peak discharge estimated on any river cell are then compared to regionalized flood quantiles (estimated with the same hydrological model). Automated warnings are issued for rivers exceeding the high flood and very high flood thresholds (defined as years of return periods) and for the associated municipalities that might be impacted. This service shares a web platform for the dissemination and communication of early warnings and hazard map displays with the APIC heavy rainfall warning service from Météo-France. </span></p><p align="justify"><span>To better anticipate flash flood events and extend the coverage of the Vigicrues Flash service, the hydrological modeling is being enhanced within the SMASH </span><span>(</span><span>S</span><span>patially-distributed </span><span>M</span><span>odelling and </span><span>AS</span><span>similation for </span><span>H</span><span>ydrology) </span><span>platform developed by INRAE (formerly Irstea). For the upcoming operational update of Vigicrues Flash, a simplified distributed hydrologic model is continuously run at a 15-minute time step and a 1-km resolution. It includes only 2 parameters per cell, controlling respectively a production reservoir and a transfer reservoir from the Génie Rural (GR) conceptual models. Cross-validation and regionalization of these two parameters have been improved to better account for basins spatial heterogeneities while optimizing flash flood warning performance. Evaluation results for 921 French basins on the 2007-2019 period show improvements in terms of flash flood event detection and effective warning lead time. Current developments aim to integrate a cell-to-cell routing component and improve parameters estimation at the national scale with the variational calibration schemes recently developed on the SMASH platform by Jay-Allemand et al. (2020). Challenges of including high-resolution precipitation nowcasts and accounting for the hydrometeorological uncertainties via data assimilation and ensemble forecasting are also discussed based on ongoing SMASH research.</span></p><p align="justify"> </p><p align="justify">Jay-Allemand, M., Javelle, P., Gejadze, I., Arnaud, P., Malaterre, P.-O., Fine, J.-A., and Organde, D.: On the potential of variational calibration for a fully distributed hydrological model: application on a Mediterranean catchment, Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 24, 5519–5538, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-5519-2020, 2020.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deg-Hyo Bae ◽  
Moon-Hwan Lee ◽  
Sung-Keun Moon

Abstract. This paper presents quantitative criteria for flash flood warning that can be used to rapidly assess flash flood occurrence based on only rainfall estimates. This study was conducted for 200 small mountainous sub-catchments of the Han River basin in South Korea because South Korea has recently suffered many flash flood events. The quantitative criteria are calculated based on flash flood guidance (FFG), which is defined as the depth of rainfall of a given duration required to cause frequent flooding (1–2-year return period) at the outlet of a small stream basin and is estimated using threshold runoff (TR) and antecedent soil moisture conditions in all sub-basins. The soil moisture conditions were estimated during the flooding season, i.e., July, August and September, over 7 years (2002–2009) using the Sejong University Rainfall Runoff (SURR) model. A ROC (receiver operating characteristic) analysis was used to obtain optimum rainfall values and a generalized precipitation–area (P–A) curve was developed for flash flood warning thresholds. The threshold function was derived as a P–A curve because the precipitation threshold with a short duration is more closely related to basin area than any other variables. For a brief description of the P–A curve, generalized thresholds for flash flood warnings can be suggested for rainfall rates of 42, 32 and 20 mm h−1 in sub-basins with areas of 22–40, 40–100 and > 100 km2, respectively. The proposed P–A curve was validated based on observed flash flood events in different sub-basins. Flash flood occurrences were captured for 9 out of 12 events. This result can be used instead of FFG to identify brief flash flood (less than 1 h), and it can provide warning information to decision-makers or citizens that is relatively simple, clear and immediate.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deg-Hyo Bae ◽  
Moon-Hwan Lee ◽  
Seun-Keun Moon

Abstract. This paper presents quantitative criteria for flash flood warning that can be used to rapidly assess flash flood occurrence based on only rainfall estimates. This study was conducted for 200 small mountainous sub-catchments of the Han River basin in South Korea because South Korea has recently suffered many flash flood events with short duration. Flash Flood Guidance (FFG) was defined as the depth of rainfall of a given duration required to cause minor flooding at the outlet of a small stream basin and was estimated using threshold runoff (TR) and antecedent soil moisture conditions in all the sub-basins. The soil moisture conditions were estimated during the flooding season, i.e., July, August and September, over 7 years (2002~2009) using the Sejong University Rainfall Runoff (SURR) model. A ROC analysis was used to obtain optimum rainfall values and a generalized precipitation-area curve (P-A curve) was developed for flash flood warning thresholds. The threshold function was derived as P-A curve due to the reason that the precipitation threshold with short duration is highly related to basin area than any other variables. Generalized thresholds for flash flood warning were obtained for rainfall rates of 42, 32 and 20 mm/h in sub-basins with areas of 22~40 km2, 40~100 km2 and > 100 km2, respectively. The proposed P-A curve was validated based on actual flash flood events in different sub-basins, which showed the viability of the proposed criteria to capture actual flash floods using only the rainfall rate and area of a sub-basin. The key advantage of this method is possible to issue flash flood warnings without the need to run entire hydro-meteorological model chains in the region where the short-duration flash flood frequently occurred.


2009 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 1334-1344 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven V. Vasiloff ◽  
Kenneth W. Howard ◽  
Jian Zhang

Abstract The principal source of information for operational flash flood monitoring and warning issuance is weather radar–based quantitative estimates of precipitation. Rain gauges are considered truth for the purposes of validating and calibrating real-time radar-derived precipitation data, both in a real-time sense and climatologically. This paper examines various uncertainties and challenges involved with using radar and rain gauge data in a severe local storm environment. A series of severe thunderstorm systems that occurred across northeastern Montana illustrates various problems with comparing radar precipitation estimates and real-time gauge data, including extreme wind effects, hail, missing gauge data, and radar quality control. Ten radar–gauge time series pairs were analyzed with most found to be not useful for real-time radar calibration. These issues must be carefully considered within the context of ongoing efforts to develop robust real-time tools for evaluating radar–gauge uncertainties. Recommendations are made for radar and gauge data quality control efforts that would benefit the operational use of gauge data.


Author(s):  
Meihong Ma ◽  
Huixiao Wang ◽  
Yan Yang ◽  
Gang Zhao ◽  
Guoqiang Tang ◽  
...  

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