Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability

Flooding events are becoming more frequent and the negative impacts that they are causing globally are very significant. Current predictions have confirmed that conditions linked with future climate scenarios are worsening; therefore, there is a strong need to improve flood risk modeling and to deve...

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Main Authors: Farzaneh Sadeghi, Matteo Rubinato, Marcel Goerke, James Hart
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-02-01
Series:Water
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/5/748
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author Farzaneh Sadeghi
Matteo Rubinato
Marcel Goerke
James Hart
author_facet Farzaneh Sadeghi
Matteo Rubinato
Marcel Goerke
James Hart
author_sort Farzaneh Sadeghi
collection DOAJ
description Flooding events are becoming more frequent and the negative impacts that they are causing globally are very significant. Current predictions have confirmed that conditions linked with future climate scenarios are worsening; therefore, there is a strong need to improve flood risk modeling and to develop innovative approaches to tackle this issue. However, the numerical tools available nowadays (commercial and freeware) need essential data for calibration and validation purposes and, regrettably, this cannot always be provided in every country for dissimilar reasons. This work aims to examine the quality and capabilities of open-source numerical flood modeling tools and their data preparation process in situations where calibration datasets may be of poor quality or not available at all. For this purpose, EPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was selected to investigate 1D modeling and LISFLOOD-FP was chosen for 2D modeling. The simulation results obtained with freeware products showed that both models are reasonably capable of detecting flood features such as critical points, flooding extent, and water depth. However, although working with them is more challenging than working with commercial products, the quality of the results relative to the reference map was acceptable. Therefore, this study demonstrated that LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM can cope with the lack of these variables as a starting point and has provided steps to undertake to generate reliable results for the need required, which is the estimation of the impacts of flooding events and the likelihood of their occurrence.
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spelling doaj.art-0d08ec83f8a6468f8abadf0a3bf99ab42023-11-24T00:02:35ZengMDPI AGWater2073-44412022-02-0114574810.3390/w14050748Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data AvailabilityFarzaneh Sadeghi0Matteo Rubinato1Marcel Goerke2James Hart3IKT-Institute for Underground Infrastructure, Exterbruch, 45886 Gelsenkirchen, GermanySchool of Energy, Construction and Environment & Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UKIKT-Institute for Underground Infrastructure, Exterbruch, 45886 Gelsenkirchen, GermanySchool of Energy, Construction and Environment & Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UKFlooding events are becoming more frequent and the negative impacts that they are causing globally are very significant. Current predictions have confirmed that conditions linked with future climate scenarios are worsening; therefore, there is a strong need to improve flood risk modeling and to develop innovative approaches to tackle this issue. However, the numerical tools available nowadays (commercial and freeware) need essential data for calibration and validation purposes and, regrettably, this cannot always be provided in every country for dissimilar reasons. This work aims to examine the quality and capabilities of open-source numerical flood modeling tools and their data preparation process in situations where calibration datasets may be of poor quality or not available at all. For this purpose, EPA’s Storm Water Management Model (SWMM) was selected to investigate 1D modeling and LISFLOOD-FP was chosen for 2D modeling. The simulation results obtained with freeware products showed that both models are reasonably capable of detecting flood features such as critical points, flooding extent, and water depth. However, although working with them is more challenging than working with commercial products, the quality of the results relative to the reference map was acceptable. Therefore, this study demonstrated that LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM can cope with the lack of these variables as a starting point and has provided steps to undertake to generate reliable results for the need required, which is the estimation of the impacts of flooding events and the likelihood of their occurrence.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/5/748urban floodnumerical modelingSWMMLISFLOOD-FPhydrodynamicsstormwater
spellingShingle Farzaneh Sadeghi
Matteo Rubinato
Marcel Goerke
James Hart
Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
Water
urban flood
numerical modeling
SWMM
LISFLOOD-FP
hydrodynamics
stormwater
title Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
title_full Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
title_fullStr Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
title_full_unstemmed Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
title_short Assessing the Performance of LISFLOOD-FP and SWMM for a Small Watershed with Scarce Data Availability
title_sort assessing the performance of lisflood fp and swmm for a small watershed with scarce data availability
topic urban flood
numerical modeling
SWMM
LISFLOOD-FP
hydrodynamics
stormwater
url https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/14/5/748
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AT marcelgoerke assessingtheperformanceoflisfloodfpandswmmforasmallwatershedwithscarcedataavailability
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