Author(s)

BAXTER E. VIEUX, JEAN E. VIEUX

Abstract

Emergency managers need to know when and where flooding is likely to occur to effectively respond to hazards. Understanding flood risk is aided by the use of a common operating picture (COP) that helps keep everyone on the same page during a flood emergency. Emergency response is aided by bringing together diverse information including distribution of rainfall and predicted flood inundation. The complexity of information sources that can benefit flood management decisions requires thoughtful integration and management. Knowing where and when a stream is likely to overtop its banks, or if road intersections are forecast to flood, makes advanced actions possible and helps protect citizens and property. Public flood warnings are generally the responsibility of national water management, or weather forecasting agencies. However, flood forecasting information services are increasingly being developed for and by municipalities, flood control districts, or private entities requiring more specificity of location, timeframe, and type of flood information. A gap analysis of a flood warning system after a major flood resulted in the development of a COP as a cloud-hosted web application. The results presented demonstrate effectiveness of the COP, which is an integrated system that supports many aspects of an early warning system used internally by agencies responsible for emergency management.

Keywords

floods, forecasting, decision support, computer information systems, cloud-based integration, emergency management, operational dashboard, real-time data, common operating picture