Flood incident management for water sensitive urban design

R. J. Dawson, M. Wang, J. Buhler

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Effective flood incident management requires successful operation of complex, interacting human and technological systems. An agent based model has been developed to provide new insights into flood incident management for water sensitive urban design. The model integrates remotely sensed information on topography, buildings and road networks with empirical survey data to fit characteristics of specific communities. The agent simulation has been coupled with a hydrodynamic model to estimate the vulnerability of individuals to flooding under different storm surge conditions, defence breach scenarios and a range of water sensitive urban design measures including flood warning and evacuation strategy. A case study in the coastal town of Towyn in the UK has yielded results that show the most vulnerable locations for people, the benefits of flood warning, and that calculating only the economic flood risk might lead to different investment priorities compared to the risk to people. The case study has demonstrated the capacity of the model to analyse the risks of flooding to people, support flood emergency planning and appraise the benefits of flood incident management measures for water sensitive urban design.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationWSUD 2012 - 7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design
Subtitle of host publicationBuilding the Water Sensitive Community, Final Program and Abstract Book
StatePublished - 2012
Event7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design, WSUD 2012 - Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Duration: Feb 21 2012Feb 23 2012

Publication series

NameWSUD 2012 - 7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design: Building the Water Sensitive Community, Final Program and Abstract Book

Conference

Conference7th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design, WSUD 2012
Country/TerritoryAustralia
CityMelbourne, VIC
Period02/21/1202/23/12

Keywords

  • Agent based modelling
  • Evacuation simulation
  • Flood incident management

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