Authors: Xingong Li, David Weiss, and Jude Kastens – University of Kansas
Title: Developing a Flash Flood Forecasting Protocol to Standardize Flash Flood Forecast Evaluations
Presentation Type: Lightning Talk
Abstract: Operational flood inundation mapping (FIM) provides real-time flood extent and depth maps for emergency response and planning. The FLDPLN (“Floodplain”) model developed at the University of Kansas has significant advantages over existing low complexity models for operational FIM. The model considers not only backfill flooding but also spillover flooding, where backed-up water can go over drainage divides and inundate adjacent drainages to approximate real flood inundation connections. The spillover flooding mechanism mitigates flood depth discontinuities and potential under-flooding seen when only backfill processes are considered. The model only needs hydro-conditioned DEM and precomputes the inundation relationships between stream cells and floodplain cells as libraries. An operational FIM dashboard has been built using the model for the State of Kansas providing real-time flood inundation depth maps for the Kansas Division of Emergency Management and the public.