Application of Flood Nomograph for Flood Forecasting in Urban Areas

• Published in: Water (Basel) 2018-01, Vol.10 (1), p.53
• Main Authors: Lee, Eui, Kim, Joong, Choo, Yeon, Jo, Deok
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Basins; Climate change; Climatic changes; Damage prevention; Data processing; Flood control; Flood damage; Flood forecasting; Flood management; Flood predictions; Flooding; Floods; Forecasting techniques; Forecasts and trends; Hydrologic data; Metropolitan areas; Preempting; Rain and rainfall; Rainfall; South Korea; Urban areas; Urbanization; Weather forecasting
• ISSN: 2073-4441; 2073-4441
• DOI: 10.3390/w10010053

Imperviousness has increased due to urbanization, as has the frequency of extreme rainfall events by climate change. Various countermeasures, such as structural and nonstructural measures, are required to prepare for these effects. Flood forecasting is a representative nonstructural measure. Flood forecasting techniques have been developed for the prevention of repetitive flood damage in urban areas. It is difficult to apply some flood forecasting techniques using training processes because training needs to be applied at every usage. The other flood forecasting techniques that use rainfall data predicted by radar are not appropriate for small areas, such as single drainage basins. In this study, a new flood forecasting technique is suggested to reduce flood damage in urban areas. The flood nomograph consists of the first flooding nodes in rainfall runoff simulations with synthetic rainfall data at each duration. When selecting the first flooding node, the initial amount of synthetic rainfall is 1 mm, which increases in 1 mm increments until flooding occurs. The advantage of this flood forecasting technique is its simple application using real-time rainfall data. This technique can be used to prepare a preemptive response in the process of urban flood management.