Innovative Visualization Techniques applied to a Flood Scenario

2003

ABSTRACT Floods are non-routine events that cause social, environmental, economical, physical and mental disruption and harm. A research programme is underway that focuses on designing a suite of Geographical Visualization (GeoVis) tools for communicating information about the risk of particular flood events using the World Wide Web (WWW). The programme aims to investigate whether GeoVis tools are a viable option for communicating the risk of floods.

2016

Human civilization always used to settle near water sources, such as rivers, lakes and seas. But, beside the vast benefits that these regions offer, they sometimes present a huge threat of flooding the inhabited areas, when even the human life could be endangered. Thus, a systems that would offer an early information about the flood state of an endangered region is crucial for all the inhabitants, so they can base their quick actions on real and accurate data and not only on certain speculations. This paper presents a low cost solution that offers precise information about a flooded (or high risk) region using current web technologies. The system presents mapped data visualizations that show the position, the water level and the time of the last condition of multiple marked map points representing the flood sensors placement.

Low elevation coastal areas are vulnerable to the effects of sea level rise and to an increase in the frequency and severity of storm surge events due to climate change. Coastal urban areas are at risk because coastal flooding causes extensive damage to energy and transportation infrastructure, disruptions to the delivery of services, devastating tolls on the public's health and, occasionally, significant loss of life. Although scientists widely stress the compelling need to mitigate and adapt to climate change, public awareness lags behind. Because WebGIS maps (web-based geographic information systems) quickly convey strong messages, condense complex information, engage people in issues of environmental change, and motivate personal actions, this paper focusses on searching the ideal flood assessment WebGIS method to encourage people to mitigate and adapt to climate change. Surveys demonstrated that 3D visualisations have an enormous added value because they are more vivid and therefore more understandable and make it easier to imagine the consequences of a flood than 2D visualisations. In this research, the WebGIS will be created using Ol3-Cesium and open layers to visualise a flood event by dynamic layers in a 2D/3D environment.

Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography, 2010

The large and ever-increasing amounts of multi-dimensional, multisource, time-varying and geospatial digital information represent a major challenge for the analyst. The need to analyze and make decisions based on these information streams, often in time-critical situations, demands efficient, integrated and interactive tools that aid the user to explore, present and communicate visually large information spaces. This approach has been encapsulated in the idea of Geovisual Analytics, an emerging interdisciplinary field based on the principles from Visual Analytics that facilitates analytical reasoning and decision making through integrated and highly interactive visual interfaces and creative visualization of complex and dynamic data. Geovisual analytics supports geo-information for emergency and early warning systems through a science that augments analyst and decision-maker capabilities to assimilate complex situations and reach informed decisions. Geovisual analytics originates from geovisualization and information visualization but also growing particularly on a high degree of synergy from scientific visualization. In this context, we introduce a web-enabled toolkit GeoAnalytics Visualization (GAV) and associate demonstrators developed in close collaboration with SMHI and OECD, composed of GAV components facilitating a broad collection of dynamic visualization methods integrated with the Adobe © Flash © and Flex © development platform. We also seek to support collaborative knowledge sharing.

2016

The FLOOD AR project originates from an explicitly expressed need for digital 3D temporal georeferenced models that can be largely diffused among riverside residents through computers and mobile devices, in order to support the raising of public awareness concerning flood risk along the Rhone river. This project is led by a multidisciplinary consortium of researchers from several fields who are working together to develop usable tools and models as well as recommendations regarding visual content, interfaces and context of use for those 3D models. As far as computer science is concerned, given the practical difficulties of resorting to 3D georeferenced technologies for practitioners and the current limitations of commonly used GIS data formats and tools, automatic tools allowing any interested parties to produce 3D temporal models in order to support flood risk awareness' enhancement were developed in the first phase of the project. The storage of those 3D models in an interoper...

Remote Sensing

Insights into flood dynamics, rather than solely flood extent, are critical for effective flood disaster management, in particular in the context of emergency relief and damage assessment. Although flood dynamics provide insight in the spatio-temporal behaviour of a flood event, to date operational visualization tools are scarce or even non-existent. In this letter, we distil a flood dynamics map from a radar satellite image time series (SITS). For this, we have upscaled and refined an existing design that was originally developed on a small area, describing flood dynamics using an object-based approach and a graph-based representation. Two case studies are used to demonstrate the operational value of this method by visualizing flood dynamics which are not visible on regular flood extent maps. Delineated water bodies are grouped into graphs according to their spatial overlap on consecutive timesteps. Differences in area and backscatter are used to quantify the amount of variation, r...

IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 1995

Scientific visualization strives to present complex concepts and data in graphic forms that maximize information gain for the viewer. In this study, we examine a well-known and highly regarded example of scientific visualization, identifying scenes where principles of graphic design, perception, and cognition suggest improvements. We focus on the identification of primary and supporting elements, provision of cues for spatial and temporal context, effective use of color, and the careful use of animation. The guidelines discussed here generalize and can be useful in a wide variety of applications.

Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers - Civil Engineering, 2014

This paper reports on the creation of a three-dimensional visualisation of flooding in Exeter, UK, which was used to raise awareness of residual and future flood risk. It has proved to be a powerful tool in changing perceptions of flood risk without waiting for a real flood event to occur, resulting in it being trialled elsewhere in the UK. The paper discusses the data, procedures and techniques employed in creating the visualisation and how it was used to communicate flood risk issues to the general public using simulation and visualisation tools. It includes a summary of the feedback from both Exeter and the national extended trial, and explores the future application of three-dimensional flood visualisation in flood risk management.

Journal of Flood Risk Management, 2010

The January 2005 flood event in the Eden catchment (UK) has focused considerable research effort towards strengthening and extending operational flood forecasting in the region. The Eden catchment has become a key study site within the remit of phase two of the Flood Risk Management Research Consortium. This paper presents a synthesis of results incorporating model uncertainty analysis, computationally efficient real-time data assimilation/forecasting algorithms, two-dimensional (2D) inundation modelling, and data visualization for decision support. The emphasis here is on methods of presenting information from a new generation of probabilistic flood forecasting models. Using Environment Agency rain and river-level gauge data, a data-based mechanistic model is identified and incorporated into a modified Kalman Filter (KF) data assimilation algorithm designed for real-time flood forecasting applications. The KF process generates forecasts within a probabilistic framework. A simulation of the 6-h ahead forecast for river levels at Sheepmount (Carlisle) covering the January 2005 flood event is presented together with methods of visualizing the associated uncertainty. These methods are then coupled to the 2D hydrodynamic LISFLOOD-FP model to produce real-time flood inundation maps. The value of incorporating probabilistic information is emphasized.

2019

Flood is a natural disaster caused directly by excessive amount of rain water, or indirectly by the global warming. Flood information can be disseminated using visual media such as 3D flood modelling. This study uses qualitative methods to review frequently used computer tools in 3D flood modelling. Currently, the generated 3D geovisualization results produced by the 3D modelling tools are lacking in terms of their aesthetics value. The purpose of this study is to analyse and select effective 3D geovisualization tools that could be merged with multimedia tools to create better aesthetics images. This study can offer insights into creating future 3D geovisualization based on spatial and non-spatial data that are more realistic and rich with aesthetics value. The analysis was conducted using SWOT analysis in order to find out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of each tools. Result shows that some commonly used 3D geovisualization tools such as ArcGIS and FME can be comb...