An intelligent and adaptable grid-based flood monitoring and warning system.

Hughes, Daniel and Greenwood, Philip and Blair, Gordon and Pappenberger, Florian and Coulson, Geoffrey and Smith, Paul and Beven, Keith (2006) An intelligent and adaptable grid-based flood monitoring and warning system. In: Proceedings of the UK e-Science All Hands Meeting 2006. National E-Science Centre, Nottingham, pp. 53-60. ISBN 9780955398810

Abstract

Flooding is a growing problem in the UK. It has a significant effect on residents, businesses and commuters in flood-prone areas. The cost of damage caused by flooding correlates closely with the warning time given before a flood event, and this makes flood monitoring and prediction critical to minimizing the cost of flood damage. This paper describes a wireless sensor network for flood warning which is not only capable of integrating with remote fixed-network grids for computationally-intensive flood modeling purposes, but is also capable of performing on-site flood modeling by organising itself as a 'local grid'. The combination of these two modes of grid computation-local and remote-yields significant benefits. For example, local computation can be used to provide timely warnings to local stakeholders, and a combination of local and remote computation can inform adaptation of the sensor network to maintain optimal performance in changing environmental conditions.