Towards a Demonstrator of Flash Flood Warning System

Mr. Jin Wei

Abstract

Flash floods are known to be one of the most dangerous natural killers. They occur as a result of very heavy rainfall distributed over an area within a short period of time. Lead time is a very important factor to take emergent action for reducing the impacts of flash flood. However, it is difficult for most of the communities in flood-prone area to get warnings with a long enough lead time. The Flash Flood Warning System (FFWS), as a non-structural measure, which combines Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) into an integrated system, provides an efficient solution for disseminating flood

warnings.

This MSc research work focuses on building a demonstrator of a comprehensive FFWS using of the knowledge of modern ICT technologies and Hydrodynamic (HD) Models, such as mobile communication, SMS/MMS messages, GPS, GIS, Database, Web, Internet and MIKE 11. Concerning information dissemination, three applications namely: Web-GIS based Flood Information System, SMS/MMS based Flash Flood Warnings System and Mobile-WAP based Integrated Storm Water Management Information System (MW-ISMIS) have been developed on the basis of the case study of St. Maarten.

Some related technologies such as ArcGIS, ArcIMS, waterRIDE, J2SE, J2ME and SMS/MMS messages are used in this case and brief description about these technologies is introduced. Some critical approaches of how to get meaningful risk maps from HD model results, how to export data into database and make the database applicable for JAVA application, how to organize a Pre-cooked (i.e., pre-prepared) flood library and how to effectively build SMS and MMS messages for application in flood warning dissemination are presented in the thesis.

Keywords: St. Maarten, Flash Flood Warning System, Risk map, Hazard level, Precooked flood library, MIKE-11,Central Database, Web-GIS, SMS/MMS, Mobile-WAP, J2SE, J2ME, ArcGIS, ArcIMS, waterRIDE.