Jan Unucka

A Description of a Highly Modular System for the Emergent Flood Prediction

The main goal of our system is to provide the end user with information about an approaching disaster. The concept is to ensure information access to adequate data for all potential users, including citizens, local mayors, governments, and specialists, within one system. It is obvious that there is a knowledge gap between the lay user and specialist. Therefore, the system must be able to provide this information in a simple format for the less informed user while providing more complete information with computation adjustment and parameterization options to more qualified users. Important feature is the open structure and modular architecture that enables the usage of different modules. Modules can contain different functions, alternative simulations or additional features. Since the architectural structure is open, modules can be combined in any way to achieve any desired function in the system. One of many important modules is our own analytic solution to the flood waves for a small basin to our system.

Multiple Scenarios Computing In The Flood Prediction System FLOREON.

Floods are the most frequent natural disasters affecting the Moravian-Silesian region. Therefore a system that could predict flood extents and help in the operative disaster management was requested. The FLOREON system was created to fulfil these requests. This article describes utilization of HPC (high performance computing) in running multiple hydrometeorological simulations concurrently in the FLOREON system that should predict upcoming floods and warn against them. These predictions are based on the data inputs from NWFS (numerical weather forecast systems) (e.g. ALADIN) that are then used to run the rainfall-runoff and hydrodynamic models. Preliminary results of these experiments are presented in this article.

FLOREON – System For Flood Prediction

The main goal of our system is to provide the end user with information about an approaching disaster. The concept is to ensure information access to adequate data for all potential users, including citizens, local mayors, governments, and specialists, within one system. It is obvious that there is a knowledge gap between the lay user and specialist. Therefore, the system must be able to provide this information in a simple format for the less informed user while providing more complete information with computation adjustment and parameterization options to more qualified users. One system feature in high demand is the ability to display reliable and understandable graphical and textual information. Information for various types of users must be adapted to a desired format which is understandable to a particular group of people. For example, a specialist can ask for all available results from different simulation models in text format. This type of information may be useless, however, to the user who only wants to find out whether or not his house will be flooded. Another important feature is the open structure and modular architecture that enables the usage of different modules. Modules can contain different functions, alternative simulations or additional features. Since the architectural structure is open, modules can be combined in any way to achieve any desired function in the system.

DTM Impact on the Results of Dam Break Simulation in 1D Hydraulic Models

Dam break simulation has been quite long established module in the hydraulic modeling industrial standards, which are represented in particular by the software packages USACE HEC-RAS and DHI MIKE 11 worldwide including the Czech Republic. Coincidentally, at this level, both previously mentioned hydraulic models are using identical numerical solvers DAMBRK and WSPRO. It can be expected that the use of identical schematization of the river channels and technical objects together with the parameterization of dam body and its geometric parameters will give the comparable results of hydraulic simulations. When the same approach is applied for the reservoir and dam schematization together with its operational rules, the simulations using the identical solver DAMBRK will produce almost same results. Finally, the differences of the generated floodlakes by these particular models will be most affected by the accuracy and resolution DMT/DMR and partly by the different simulation concepts of water flow in the inundation area within each individual model. Because of the extreme situations of the “dam break” are occurring rarely (in the Czech Republic with larger water works only once), the calibration data is virtually absent. It is certainly not an argument to tell, that the simulation apparatus for HPPS and POVIS in the scope of the crisis management and planning was not prepared for these situations. A sensitivity analysis is among the crucial conditions of the successful modelling. This paper focuses particularly on the impact of DTM accuracy on dam break simulations.

Overview of the complex and modular system FLOREON+ for hydrologic and environmental modeling.

The main goal of the research project FLOREON (FLOod REcognition On the Net) is a development of prototypal open modular system of environmental risks modeling and simulation which is based on modern internet technologies and platform independency. The system is running in the operative way nowadays. Hydrological issues such as floods are complimented by other environmental analyses and models. These models involve water quality, air quality, erosion and ecological models. The final product of the project is going to be the system offering an online communicational man-machine interface and providing various types of products for decision support. The project results should help to simplify the process of crisis management and increase its operability and effectiveness. The main scopes of modeling and simulation are flood risk, transportation risk and water and air pollution risks. Incorporation of geographic information systems (GIS) is a logical step because numerical models work with geospatial data and effective handling of such data is a crucial factor of efficiency of the whole system.

Results Comparison of the Flow Direction and Accumulation Algorithms Together with Distributed Rainfall-Runoff Models in Czech Switzerland National Park

Algorithms for calculation direction (FD) and accumulation of runoff (FA) are one of the most widely used software of GIS modules. A both commercial platforms ESRI ArcGIS and IDRISI used in this case study and also the used open source tools such as GRASS GIS or SAGA GIS dispose of such modules. It is expected that the currently established algorithms generate good enough results, so crucial factors for such analyses become quality and resolution of the digital terrain model. Considering HPPS CR and POVIS systems, which are both provided by Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, these analysis serves only as the basic mechanisms to obtain the complementary informations about the watershed parameters. However, similar analyses serves also as the fundamental basis for more the sophisticated analytical apparatus, which represent currently distributed rainfall-runoff models. This paper focuses on comparing the results of different algorithms FD and FA with the fully distributed rainfall-runoff models MIKE SHE and SIMWE. The pilot area is a Czech Switzerland National Park and various small anthropogenically least affected catchments, such as Jetřichovický potok, Dlouha and Sucha Běla, Cervený potok, Koutský potok. An important factor here is extremely complicated relief NP Czech Switzerland, so it was necessary to use LIDAR DTM, specifically from the project GeNeSIS.

Utilization of the Geoinfomatics and Mathematical Modelling Tools for the Analyses of Importance and Risks of the Historic Water Works

Old and historic water works are the subject of interdisciplinary interest, which covers the spectrum from hydrology and environmental protection to heritage preservation. The reason is the very meaning of these works in terms of nature and landscape protection and technical landmarks conservation, but also their impact on the water dynamics in the landscape during the normal and extreme runoff situations. Because the documentation of these objects is often conforming to their age and changes in ownership together with the issues about the standardization of these data, and often not even in the digital form. However, Czech Hydrometeorological Institute is responsible for the hydrometric and expert surveying on these objects. Above mentioned aspects formed the main motivation for the progressing cooperation with partners on the issues such is the methodical data collection and evaluation of these objects in pilot areas using the tools of the hydrometry, geoinformatics and mathematical modelling. Existing results of the hydrometrical measurements, GIS analyses and hydraulic modelling within the pilot areas together with the other tasks and issues to be solved are presented in this paper.

Floreon+ system: Web applications with 3D visualization support

Research project FLOREON+ deals with disaster management support. Philosophy of the project is based on its modularity which enables integration on seemingly unrelated problem domains. The research is primary focused on modeling and simulation of flood risk, traffic, and water and air pollution. Domain areas can be extended in the future. This paper is aimed at description of visualization module which represents top layer of system architecture. Emphasis is placed on 3D visualization and its data structure.