Assessment of 1D/2D coupled model for prediction of flood inundation

In the era of increased extreme events, the assessment and management of the consequences become a necessity. Since the past twenty years floods affected more than two billion people worldwide. Urbanisation, overpopulation, insufficient drainage systems, spatio-temporal variation of rainfall events, climate change, unplanned settlements over the coastal areas and flood-prone areas can be few of the causes of floods. 1D, 2D and 1D/2D coupled hydro-dynamic models are developed to study such flood events. Some of the popular models used for the analysis of floods are HEC RAS, MIKE 11, MIKE 21, MIKE Urban, SWMM, SOBEK, FLO-2D and SWAT. These models use implicit and explicit finite difference schemes are used for solving one and two-dimensional hyperbolic partial differential equations. The data requirements and methodology for the development and assessment of modelling extreme flood events across the globe is highlighted and presented in the paper. Importance of developing the framework beforehand for optimising of model suitability, availability of data and objective function is reviewed. The present study discusses important 1D/2D coupled models case studies used for flood inundation studies.

Keywords: Floods, extreme events, modelling, HEC RAS, shallow water equations.