Interactive web-based flood modeling at country wide scale and plantar size resolution

Session A3: Innovative Architectures and Approaches of Cloud and Mobile Technology for Environmental Modeling

The flooding of rural and urban areas is an increasing hazard to society. Accurate and timely predictions are essential for the water manager to prepare and respond to these hazards. Predicting flooding requires a numerical model that represents the physical processes (rain, evaporation, infiltration, overland flow, groundwater flow). This model, fed with measurements, and possible measures, calculates the expected flooding. The traditional working method consists of a three step process: schematization setup, running and post-processing, with a total feedback time of hours. This process is suitable for confirmatory modeling. Most of the time, models are applied exploratory, requiring a different workflow. Enabling exploratory modeling requires a shift in utilization of the instrument. Stakeholders are in control and together evaluate ideas by interacting with the model through a mobile compatible website, supported by the modelers’ expertise. Enabling this type of interactivity requires a new level of performance. The 3Di platform, in which the new approach was applied, consists of a new flooding and hydrological Model (1D/2D) with a corresponding cloud based infrastructure. Applications in rural and urban areas of O (1000km2) at a resolution of O (0.1m) have shown its capabilities for both exploratory and confirmatory modeling. The ambition that every component should be at least a 100 times faster than the previous approach, resulted in several advancements, both in the numerical engine and the software that interacts with the user and pushes the data to the web. Here we show advancements in the architecture and model communication.