Modelling and prediction of urban pluvial flooding

Objective

To implement high resolution rainfall estimates and forecasts into improved urban storm water models in order to enhance urban pluvial flood modelling and short term prediction.
The small scale and fast response of urban catchments means that very detailed urban storm water models are required to well represent urban runoff processes. However, more detailed models require higher resolution data for their implementation and forcing, and also have higher computational requirements. Within this work package several modelling tools have been investigated, improved, developed and tested. Based upon this, recommendations for enhanced urban pluvial flood modelling and forecasting have been made.

Radar installation © Susana Ochoa / ICL		Rainfall estimation and prediction © Li-Pen Wang / KUL		Implementation of rainfall into storm water models ©Damian Murla Tuyls / KUL

Actions

The main actions carried out within this work package are the following:

• Customisation and improvement of urban storm water models, including:
  • Model refinement
  • Development and improvement of modelling tools
  • Comparison of model structures
• Testing of models with improved rainfall inputs, including assessment of the impact of rainfall input resolution on urban runoff estimates
• Automatic linkage of rainfall inputs into storm water models for real-time short-term forecasting of urban pluvial flooding
• Elaboration of guidelines and training material

The deliverables of this and other work packages can be found here.