Urban surface water flood modelling – a comprehensive review of current models and future challenges

Abstract

Abstract. Urbanisation is an irreversible trend as a result of social and economic development. Urban areas, with high concentration of population, key infrastructure, and businesses, are extremely vulnerable to flooding and may suffer severe socio-economic losses due to climate change. Urban flood modelling tools are in demand to predict surface water inundation caused by intense rainfall and to manage associated flood risks in urban areas. These tools have been rapidly developing in recent decades. In this study, we present a comprehensive review of the advanced urban flood models and emerging approaches for predicting urban surface water flooding driven by intense rainfall. The study explores the advantages and limitations of existing model types, highlights the most recent advances, and identifies major challenges. Issues of model complexities, scale effects, and computational efficiency are also analysed. The results will inform scientists, engineers, and decision-makers of the latest developments and guide the model selection based on desired objectives.

Flood Hazard Mapping with Distributed Hydrological Simulations and Remote-Sensed Slackwater Sediments in Ungauged Basins

“…In the last decades, the application of distributed hydrological models has increased [9,[11][12][13][14] due to the speedup of the numerical simulations using GPU [10]. Here we combine the modelling of rainfall-runoff processes through a feedback loop with paleohydrology.…”

“…So, areas at flood risk might not be limited to the floodplains of the main river but extend over tributary sub-basins and their drainage network (e.g., torrents and gullies). Distributed hydrological models based on the two-dimensional Saint-Venant equations can be adopted for flood hazard mapping at such a spatial scale [7][8][9]. Outstanding free software accelerated by multi-CPU and graphics processing unit (GPU) emerged in the last decade [10].…”

Using the present to estimate the future: A simplified approach for the quantification of climate change effects on urban flooding by scenario analysis

“…Flooding is one of the major risks of urban areas (Vacondio et al, 2016), where high amounts of casualties and economic damages can be reached because of the considerable exposure in terms of society, infrastructures and services (Ahmad & Simonovic, 2013;Knight et al, 2021;Noh et al, 2018). Additionally, the high levels of impervious surfaces and the morphological complexity of urban areas have the twofold effect of inducing flood hazards even for moderately extreme events and that of increasing the complexity of modelling, evaluating and forecasting rainfall impacts, due to the finer spatial and temporal resolutions required to account for the built environment and the short concentration times, respectively (Arnone et al, 2018;Aronica & Lanza, 2005;Guo et al, 2021;Hammond et al, 2015;Jacobson, 2011;Miranda & Ferreira, 2019;NRCS, 1986).…”

An Efficient GPU Implementation of a Coupled Overland-Sewer Hydraulic Model with Pollutant Transport

“…Urban areas usually have a high concentration of population, business and infrastructures, representing extremely vulnerable regions to natural hazards such as floodings, which can lead to important social and economic losses [1][2][3][4][5]. Flood risk management has historically focused on coastal and fluvial flooding, with less emphasis on urban surface water flooding [6]. Nevertheless, the advance of urbanization over green areas leads to a soil impermeabilization and the limited discharge capacity of the drainage network of the cities has increased runoff volumes and flooding in significant areas.…”

“…On the other hand, water flow in sewer systems is usually modelled by means of 1D models to route the water flow [19,[24][25][26][27]. A very recent review of the current urban surface water flood models is presented in Guo et al [6].…”