Supporting Flood Disaster Management with Numerical Modelling and Spatial Mapping Tools

要旨

The use of GIS technologies and computer models pervades all aspects of water management, supporting wealth creation through products and services, contributing to many improvements in the quality of life. As a result, there is a growing increase in demands for better use, productivity, flexibility, robustness and quality of such systems. Nowadays, the philosophy of stormwater system and floodplain management cannot be conceived without the use of modelling and spatial technologies. In this context, the purpose of such systems is at understanding and predicting the behaviour and performance of stormwater systems so that the effective solutions to flood-related structural and operational problems can be derived and evaluated within a decision-making framework. With instantiated physically-based computational models, it is possible to calculate potential behaviour of floods, their rates of rise, evolving extents, and areas of high hazards with lead times prior to the area concerned being flooded. The real-time measurements, coupled with remote sensing of land use and terrain levels, forecasts of rainfall based on weather radar and ensemble predictions from global circulation of the atmosphere and associated local area models, routine asset inspections and maintenance, and stakeholder and customer reports, can help to provide a digital overview of the risks associated with potential disasters. Furthermore, in order to assess risk it is necessary to generate scenarios of the possible initiation of disasters coupled with their consequences in the light of different control and mitigation actions. This paper addresses the use of modelling and spatial technologies in the context of urban flood hazard analysis and disaster preparedness.