• Title/Summary/Keyword: flash floods

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Quantitative Flood Forecasting Using Remotely-Sensed Data and Neural Networks

  • Kim, Gwangseob
    • Proceedings of the Korea Water Resources Association Conference
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    • 2002.05a
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    • pp.43-50
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    • 2002
  • Accurate quantitative forecasting of rainfall for basins with a short response time is essential to predict streamflow and flash floods. Previously, neural networks were used to develop a Quantitative Precipitation Forecasting (QPF) model that highly improved forecasting skill at specific locations in Pennsylvania, using both Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) output and rainfall and radiosonde data. The objective of this study was to improve an existing artificial neural network model and incorporate the evolving structure and frequency of intense weather systems in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States for improved flood forecasting. Besides using radiosonde and rainfall data, the model also used the satellite-derived characteristics of storm systems such as tropical cyclones, mesoscale convective complex systems and convective cloud clusters as input. The convective classification and tracking system (CCATS) was used to identify and quantify storm properties such as life time, area, eccentricity, and track. As in standard expert prediction systems, the fundamental structure of the neural network model was learned from the hydroclimatology of the relationships between weather system, rainfall production and streamflow response in the study area. The new Quantitative Flood Forecasting (QFF) model was applied to predict streamflow peaks with lead-times of 18 and 24 hours over a five year period in 4 watersheds on the leeward side of the Appalachian mountains in the mid-Atlantic region. Threat scores consistently above .6 and close to 0.8 ∼ 0.9 were obtained fur 18 hour lead-time forecasts, and skill scores of at least 4% and up to 6% were attained for the 24 hour lead-time forecasts. This work demonstrates that multisensor data cast into an expert information system such as neural networks, if built upon scientific understanding of regional hydrometeorology, can lead to significant gains in the forecast skill of extreme rainfall and associated floods. In particular, this study validates our hypothesis that accurate and extended flood forecast lead-times can be attained by taking into consideration the synoptic evolution of atmospheric conditions extracted from the analysis of large-area remotely sensed imagery While physically-based numerical weather prediction and river routing models cannot accurately depict complex natural non-linear processes, and thus have difficulty in simulating extreme events such as heavy rainfall and floods, data-driven approaches should be viewed as a strong alternative in operational hydrology. This is especially more pertinent at a time when the diversity of sensors in satellites and ground-based operational weather monitoring systems provide large volumes of data on a real-time basis.

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Urbanization and Quality of Stormwater Runoff: Remote Sensing Measurements of Land Cover in an Arid City

  • Kang, Min Jo;Mesev, Victor;Myint, Soe W.
    • Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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    • v.30 no.3
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    • pp.399-415
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    • 2014
  • The intensity of stormwater runoff is particularly acute across cities located in arid climates. During flash floods loose sediment and pollutants are typically transported across sun-hardened surfaces contributing to widespread degradation of water quality. Rapid, dense urbanization exacerbates the problem by creating continuous areas of impervious surfaces, perforated only by a few green patches. Our work demonstrates how the latest techniques in remote sensing can be used to routinely measure urban land cover types, impervious cover, and vegetated areas. In addition, multiple regression models can then infer relationships between urban land use and land cover types with stormwater quality data, initially sampled at discrete monitoring sites, and then extrapolated annually across an arid city; in our case, the city of Phoenix in Arizona, USA. Results reveal that from 30 storm event samples, solids and heavy metal pollutants were found to be highly related with general impervious surfaces; in particular, with industrial and commercial land use types. Repercussions stemming from this work include support for public policies that advocate environmental sustainability and the more recent focus on urban livability. Also, advocacy for new urban construction and re-development that both steer away from vast unbroken impervious surfaces, in place of more fragmented landscapes that harmonize built and green spaces.

A Visualization Method of High Definition Weather Radar Information for various GIS Platforms (다양한 GIS 플랫폼을 위한 고해상도 기상레이더 정보 시각화 기법)

  • Jang, Bong-Joo;Lim, Sanghun;Lee, Suk-Hwan;Moon, Kwang-Seok;Chandrasekar, V.;Kwon, Ki-Ryong
    • Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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    • v.16 no.11
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    • pp.1239-1249
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    • 2013
  • According to development of weather radar, researches about observation, analysis or forecast of weather phenomena such as tornado, flash-flood etc. were encouraged by reducing frequency interferences, transmission noises, attenuations of radar signal. In contrast, there is a growing interest in the visualization and expression methods for weather radar data but weather radar manufacturers or the organs of government for weather are just busy interpreting expressed weather images projected on GIS. We propose an effective high definition weather radar information visualization method able to apply various GIS platforms to observe and take actions against rapid local weather changes effectively. In this paper, first we change information acquired from weather radar to raster or vector type high definition data structures using specific algorithms. And then, we quadrate our processed raster/vector type weather data with various GIS platforms accurately to make observers can recognize and check weather situations over exact geographical positions and elevations intuitively. Experimental results verify that our method make observers can recognize and analyze weather changes, tornados, local downpours or flash floods accurately by analyzing high definition weather radar data combined with GIS platform including detailed target locations and elevations.

Analysis of Flooded Areas for Cadastral Information-Based Rainfall Frequencies (지적정보 기반의 강우빈도별 침수지역 분석)

  • Min, Kwan-Sik;Lee, Hyung-Seok
    • Journal of the Korean Association of Geographic Information Studies
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    • v.13 no.4
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    • pp.101-110
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    • 2010
  • The increased occurrence of flooding due to typhoons and local rainfall has necessitated damage prevention through the systematic construction of damage history and quantitative analysis of flood prediction data. In this study, we constructed a disaster information map for practical use by combining digital images and continuous cadastral maps of damaged areas using a geographic information system to provide basic data and attribute information. In addition, we predicted the areas at risk of flash floods by calculating the flood capacity of the study area for different rainfall frequencies through flood inundation simulation, which was used to obtain comprehensive disaster information. Further, we calculated the extent of the flooded area and the damage rate for different rainfall frequencies using cadastral information. Flood inundation simulation in the case of heavy rainfall was found to help improve the ability to react to a flood and enhance the efficiency of rescue work by supporting decision-making for disaster management.

Analysis of Effectiveness for Water Cycle and Cost-Benefit according to LID Application Method in Environmentally-Friendly Village (친환경시범마을의 LID 적용에 따른 물순환 효과 및 비용편익 분석)

  • Baek, Jongseok;Lee, Sangjin;Shin, Hyunsuk;Kim, Hyungsan
    • Journal of Korean Society on Water Environment
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    • v.34 no.1
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    • pp.57-66
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    • 2018
  • Water disasters such as flash floods and inundation caused by localized heavy rainfall in urban areas have a large impact on climate change but are also closely related to the increase in impervious areas as pointed out in domestic and international studies. It is difficult to secure natural green areas in urban areas that have already been developed. So, urban regeneration can be expected using water management optimized with technologies to secure infiltration and storage capacity such as Low-Impact Development technology. In this study, the water cycle improvement ability was confirmed by applying the LID technology within the district unit plan of the environmentally friendly village, and the economic feasibility of LID application was analyzed by estimating the costs and benefits of installing the facilities. The site was planned to conserve sufficient green and plans for securing the watershed infiltration and storage capacity were formulated with the application of additional LID technology, such as infiltration trenches, rain barrels and permeable pavements. The LID design method applicable to the site was established, and the water balance of the watershed was analyzed through simulations of the SWMM model. The water circulation improvement effect was confirmed through the water balance analysis, and the cost-benefits were determined according to the estimation method, and the economic analysis was conducted. This study confirms that the investment of LID technology is economically feasible for the hydrological improvement effect of the housing complex.

Generation of radar rainfall data for hydrological and meteorological application (II) : radar rainfall ensemble (수문기상학적 활용을 위한 레이더 강우자료 생산(II) : 레이더 강우앙상블)

  • Kim, Tae-Jeong;Lee, Dong-Ryul;Jang, Sang-Min;Kwon, Hyun-Han
    • Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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    • v.50 no.1
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    • pp.17-28
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    • 2017
  • A recent increase in extreme weather events and flash floods associated with the enhanced climate variability results in an increase in climate-related disasters. For these reasons, various studies based on a high resolution weather radar system have been carried out. The weather radar can provide estimates of precipitation in real-time over a wide area, while ground-based rain gauges only provides a point estimate in space. Weather radar is thus capable of identifying changes in rainfall structure as it moves through an ungauged basin. However, the advantage of the weather radar rainfall estimates has been limited by a variety of sources of uncertainty in the radar reflectivity process, including systematic and random errors. In this study, we developed an ensemble radar rainfall estimation scheme using the multivariate copula method. The results presented in this study confirmed that the proposed ensemble technique can effectively reproduce the rainfall statistics such as mean, variance and skewness (more importantly the extremes) as well as the spatio-temporal structure of rainfall fields.

Generation of radar rainfall data for hydrological and meteorological application (I) : bias correction and estimation of error distribution (수문기상학적 활용을 위한 레이더 강우자료 생산(I) : 편의보정 및 오차분포 산정)

  • Kim, Tae-Jeong;Lee, Dong-Ryul;Jang, Sang-Min;Kwon, Hyun-Han
    • Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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    • v.50 no.1
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    • pp.1-15
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    • 2017
  • Information on radar rainfall with high spatio-temporal resolution over large areas has been used to mitigate climate-related disasters such as flash floods. On the other hand, a well-known problem associated with the radar rainfall using the Marshall-Palmer relationship is the underestimation. In this study, we develop a new bias correction scheme based on the quantile regression method. This study employed a bivariate copula function method for the joint simulation between radar and ground gauge rainfall data to better characterize the error distribution. The proposed quantile regression based bias corrected rainfall showed a good agreement with that of observed. Moreover, the results of our case studies suggest that the copula function approach was useful to functionalize the error distribution of radar rainfall in an effective way.

Estimation of Reinforcement Effect of Superannuated Fill Dam Repaired by the Permeable Grouting Method (침투그라우팅이 시공된 노후필댐의 보수보강효과 평가)

  • Kim, Yungjin;Heo, Yol;Oh, Byunghyun
    • Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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    • v.8 no.6
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    • pp.45-52
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    • 2007
  • Maintenance of structural and hydrological safety of the superannuated fill dam is very important subject on the viewpoint of disaster prevention. Mainly, the core of the superannuated fill dams have been damaged continuously by the various harmful external forces such as the typhoons, flash floods and earthquake, and these can be connected to the large scaled general dam failure. Therefore, the research on the repair, remediation and reinforcement of dam is necessary. In this study, the permeable grouting method for the remediation of fill dam was examined by the electrical resistivity survey and the change of permeability of core front. As a result, the permeable grouting method can be useful remediation method for the superannuated fill dam, the leakage from the core front decreased greatly before and after the construction of grouting. Furthermore, it can be said that the turbidity of fill dam may not be greatly increased by grouting.

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Changes in Plant Species on a Grass Roof over Time (초지지붕에서의 시간경과에 따른 식생변화)

  • Lee, Young-Moo
    • Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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    • v.34 no.6 s.119
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    • pp.39-53
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    • 2007
  • Unlike conventional roof landscaping, where various kinds of plants and structures are employed, a grass roof is a roof on which herbaceous plants are grown in planting medium and which is not accessed or maintained, mainly because it doesn't have sufficient load capacity to support a regular roof garden. They are mostly built on existing roofs, whether flat slab or gabled. Planting on roofs has numerous advantages, such as creating a biotope, purifying urban air, adding moisture to the atmosphere, storing rain water, preventing flash floods, reducing energy use for heating and air conditioning, enhancing the urban landscape and providing relaxation to the city dwellers, not to mention the alleviation of global warming by absorbing $CO_2$. In addition to the general merits of roof planting, the grass roof has its own unique qualities. Only herbaceous species are planted on the roof, resulting in light weight which allows roofs of existing buildings to be planted without structural reinforcement. The species chosen are mostly short, tough perennials that don't need to be maintained. These conditions provide an ideal situation where massive planting can be done in urban areas where roofs are often the only and definitely the largest space available to be planted. If roofs are planted on a massive scale they can play a significant role in alleviating global warming, heat island effects and energy shortages. Despite the advantages of grass roofs, there are some problems. The most significant problem is the invasion of neighboring plants. They may be brought in with the planting medium, by birds or by wind. These plants have little aesthetic value comparing to the chosen species and are usually taller. Eventually they dominate and prevail over the original species. The intended planting design disappears and the roof comes to look wild. Since the primary value of a grass roof is ecological, a change in attitude towards what constitutes beauty on the roofscape is necessary. Instead of keeping the roof neat through constant maintenance, people must learn that the wild grass with bird's nests on their roof is more beautiful as it is.

Simulation of the Debris Flow Using FLO-2D According to Curve-shape Changes in Bed Slopes (FLO-2D를 활용한 경사지 형상에 따른 토석류 흐름양상에 대한 수치모의)

  • Jung, Hyo Jun;Yoo, Hyung Ju;Lee, Seung Oh
    • Journal of Korean Society of Disaster and Security
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    • v.13 no.3
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    • pp.45-58
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    • 2020
  • Due to a high portion of mountainous terrains in Korea, debris flow and its disasters have been increased. In addition, recently localized flash-floods caused by climate change should add frequencies and potential risks. Grasping and understanding the behaviors of debris flow would allow us to prevent the consequent disasters caused by its occurrence. In this study, we developed a number of cases by changing the bottom slopes and their curvatures and investigated their effects on potential damage caused by the debris flow using FLO-2D. As simulating each bed slopes we analyzed for velocity, depth, impact, reach distance, and reach shape. As a result the lower the average slope, the greater the influence of its curvature and the numerical results were analyzed with showed a well-marked difference in impact stress and flow velocity. The result from this study could be referred for protecting from the debris flows when design countermeasure structures in mountainous regions.