Flood forecast technological platforms: an adaptive response to extreme events

Abstract

Floods are among the most catastrophic natural disasters with great destructive impact that happen suddenly and sometimes unexpectedly. Although advanced technological tools are available for extreme events prediction, a significant number of floods and inundations still occur every year around the world, causing thousands of deaths and heavy economic losses. Climate change adds uncertainty and severity to intense precipitation phenomena, making it increasingly important to forecast their potential effects in a timely manner in order to minimize their impacts. Recently, the great progress in computational resources and modelling advances, as well as the increase of satellite remote sensing data provided new opportunities to create powerful hydroinformatic tools to be used in the implementation of flood forecasting and warning systems. These developments also benefit from the availability of real-time meteorological information, especially from satellite-based weather radar and meteorological radar and from a diverse range of atmospheric models forecasts that allow their use to force hydrological and hydrodynamic models. This study describes the incorporation of meteorological and hydrological data and models for a flood forecasting and early warning system implementation based on the Delft FEWS platform. The Portuguese river Ave basin was taken as study area. This platform, besides early warnings emissions, will help decision makers and planners to identify areas of potentially significant flood risk, and then the preparation of flood risk management plans, and to set out emergency preparedness plans for these areas.