In this paper, Multi-Layer Perceptron and RadialBasis Function Neural Networks, along with the Nearest Neighbour approach and linear regression are utilized for flash-flood forecasting in the mountainous Nysa Klodzka river catchment. It turned out that the Radial-Basis Function Neural Network is the best model for 3and 6-h lead time prediction and the only reliable one for 9-h lead time forecas...

More and more natural disasters are happening every year: floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc. In order to reduce the risk of possible damages, governments all around the world are investing into development of Early Warning Systems (EWS) for environmental applications. The most important task of the EWS is identification of the onset of critical situations affecting environment and po...

The predictability of the flood event affecting Soverato (Southern Italy) in September 2000 is investigated by considering three different configurations of ECMWF ensemble: the operational Ensemble Prediction System (EPS), the targeted EPS and a high-resolution version of EPS. For each configuration, three successive runs of ECMWF ensemble with the same verification time are grouped together so...

Early flood forecasting systems can mitigate damage during extreme events. Typically, the effects of events in terms inundation depths and extents are computed using detailed hydraulic models. However, a major drawback these models is computational time, which generally order hours to days for large river basins. Gaining insight outflow hydrographs case dike breaches especially important estima...

It has long been recognized that flood protection provided by levees is a double-edged sword. On one hand, levee systems have provided flood protection. On the other hand, given enough time levees either will be overtopped or will fail—leading to severe flood impacts on an unsuspecting population. Unlike a natural flood, levee failure flooding is often rapid, forceful, extremely damaging, and o...

Appropriate precautions in the case of flood occurrence often require long lead times (several days) in hydrological forecasting. This in turn implies large uncertainties that are mainly inherited from the meteorological precipitation forecast. Here we present a case study of the extreme flood event of August 2005 in the Swiss part of the Rhine catchment (total area 34 550 km2). This event caus...

We developed a robust approach for real-time levee condition monitoring based on combination of data-driven methods (one-side classification) and finite element analysis. It was implemented within a flood early warning system and validated on a series of full-scale levee failure experiments organised by the IJkdijk consortium in August-September 2012 in the Netherlands. Our approach has detecte...