BULETINUL Vol.

LX Seria
Universităţii Petrol – Gaze din Ploieşti No. 2/2008
86-92 Matematică - Informatică - Fizică

An Analysis of Modern Monitoring and Preventing

Techniques of Floods
Alexandra Maria Matei

Oficiul Judeţean de Plăţi pentru Dezvoltare Rurală şi Pescuit Prahova, str. Anton Pann, Nr. 7, Ploieşti
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract
This paper presents a short analysis of the newest monitoring and preventing techniques applied to the
management of emergency situations from a river basin. The analysis relates to some up-to-date software
systems implemented in national and international projects about monitoring and preventing of floods.
Usage of artificial intelligence in monitoring and preventing of floods proves better results than
conventional methods. In order to improve the efficiency of these techniques, it is proposed to apply
artificial intelligence techniques such as experts systems, data mining, intelligence agents.

Key words: artificial intelligence, flood prediction, monitoring

Introduction
Water brings with it a permanent element of risk, an extremely may occur at any time.
Hydrologists are the ones who have the responsibility to collect more precise data using the
most modern equipment and to develop accurate analysis on the possible production of flooding
to prevent human and material loss.
More recently, the development of computer and data transmission have made possible to obtain
data measured by remote devices and to develop programs for real-time prediction of floods.
Research efforts in this area are oriented to more directions which aim at:
Monitoring the river basins, which involves observation and measurement of specific
parameters, such as debits waves of runoff, recognizing the end of water lines in defense
profiles, cross sections of the river. Real-time of the development of river basins parameters
is made on the drafting of accurate forecasts;
o Prediction of short and medium term which takes into account the evolution, nature and
intensity of hydrological phenomena by analyzing all the factors and processes that
determine them. The main purpose of prediction is to reduce the adverse effects associated
with floods;
o Control, to a greater or lesser extend, of the production of maps through the development
and installation of systems for monitoring and prediction in some hydrological basins with
potential risk.
 An Analysis of Modern Monitoring and Preventing Techniques of Floods 87

The paper presents an analysis of the latest techniques for monitoring and predicting of the
floods, developed by projects at both national and international level. This is based on the
information contained in bibliographic sources and own scientific and practical acquired
observations.
There have also been reviewed several software solutions already implemented in projects
developed for modeling and simulating of the emergency situations such as the production of
runoffs in river basins.

The Current State of Research at National and International Level,

in Monitoring and Predictions of Floods

International Projects
Practice has shown that global occurrence of floods can not be avoided, but they can be
managed, and their effects can be reduced through a systematic process that leads to a series of
measures and actions aimed to contribute to the reduction of the risk associated with these
phenomena. Flood management is easier by the fact that their event is predictable and often a
prior warning can be made, and normally it is possible to clarify who and what will be affected
by the floods.
In the next paragraphs we shall present the solutions adopted at the international level for flood
management by implementing programs and systems for monitoring and preventing of floods:
o ANFAS project aims to develop a system of decision-making to prevent and protect against
floods by using one of the most advanced techniques of data processing and management;
[3]
o NVE project aims to achieve maps of flood risk in Norway. Models of data from the
mapped areas with high risk of flooding will be possible for quantitative predictions of
floods, such as forecasts of local water levels; [13]
o DMS project includes implementation of a system of flood forecasting and the mapping of
flooded areas from Mahanadi river basin; [6]
o FRICS project involves establishing of a comprehensive system for managing the rivers for
flood control, using of water resources and environmental conservation as well as
preparation of detailed action plans in case of emergencies to deal with floods in urban
areas; [1]
o HydroHMD software is running for the development of three projects in Turkey and
Bulgaria: one for information and exchange data in real time and another two to prevent
flooding and warning; [7]
o Seyhan project is used for modeling Seyhan river in Turkey with the use of methods of
artificial intelligence; [4]
These solutions consists in forecasting of the floods, either by flood mapping for land prone to
flooding, or through using of information systems of warning in case of possible production of
dangerous hydro-meteorological phenomena.
Table 1 summarizes the main features of the projects listed above:
88 Alexandra Maria Matei

Table 1. The features of systems for flood management adopted at the international level
The characteristics
The use of
Visual The use of Methods of The use of
Project conventional The use of
representation of an user sampling of entry the
methods or the Internet
areas flooded interface data databases
advanced
Advanced Yes Distance
ANFAS Yes Yes Yes
methods bidimensional measurement
Previously
Conventional Yes
NVE No No recorded Yes
methods bidimensional
historical events
Conventional Yes Airborne Laser
DMS Yes Yes Yes
methods bidimensional System
Pluviometric and
Conventional
FRICS Nu No Yes measuring Yes
methods
stations
Conventional Hydrometric
HydroHMD No No No Yes
methods stations
Previously
Advanced
SEYHAN No Yes Yes recorded Yes
methods
historical events

It can be seen from Table 1 that most part of the systems implemented in recent years require
the use of modern technological equipment, systems such as automatic acquisition of data from
the points of interest located within the basin, modern techniques for processing and storing
information acquired results in database systems for real-time description of the development of
river basins parameters.
I will continue with describing of several types of modeling and simulation systems of
hydrological processes implemented abroad:
o Hydrologic modeling system HEC-HMS is a generalized system capable of modeling to
represent more problems related to the debacle. The program is built to be applicable in
different geographical areas and to solve a wide range of specific issues. These include large
river basins, hydrological floods, overflow of small urban water. Hydrographical maps
made by the program can be used either directly or together with other software to study the
availability of water, flood prediction, reducing damage caused by them, regularization of
river course to reduce flooding. The program is characterized by a fully integrated work
environment including a database, opportunities for the introduction of data, engine and
computational tools for reporting results. The program includes a graphical user interface
that allows flexible movement between different parts of the program. Functionality and the
presentation of the program are the same, regardless of the platforms on which it is
installed. [10]
o The WMS program is a comprehensive graphical modeling system for all phases of water
leakage. WMS includes powerful tools for automation of processes such as modeling
description of the river basin, the calculation of geometrical specific parameters, extraction
of cross-sectional data on land and more.
o HSPF hydrological system is used to simulate falls of plentiful rainfall and snow melting.
Climatic data are acquired and played in real time. Pre-processor routines are used to ensure
data quality, control quality and partial records filling. The interactive GENSCN (to
generate and analyze simulation scenarios) is the interface of HSPF and helps in the
 An Analysis of Modern Monitoring and Preventing Techniques of Floods 89

management of databases. This is a printing, the generating of statistics and animating the
results of simulation with HSPF software. [14]
Table 2 summarizes the main features of the systems listed above:

Table 2. Types of modeling and simulation of flooding systems

Compatibility with GIS
The platform
System Multiuser operating (Geographical Types of images
that runs
Information System)
It is a software package that
Microsoft is used with ArcView for
Multiuser operating
HEC-HMS Windows and X- the development of a 2D images
in network
Windows number of hydrological
models
It is not a compatible GIS
Microsoft data management therefore Pictures of 2D and 3D
WMS No
Windows primary data on land and design
soil is limited
The output are
represented in the
Microsoft It is not a program that form of a series of
HSPF No
Windows 9x/NT processes data from GIS data and does not use
graphics to describe
them

Thus, one can see that at present there are systems that have certain specific on modeling the
river basin, while others have targets on simulating the production of any flooding and generate
maps with floodable river bands.

National Projects
On the national level, there have been developed in recent years the following projects:
o DESWAT program aims to improve national water system to protect against flooding and
dangerous hydro-meteorological phenomena. [15]
o WATMAN project provides data and real-time forecasts, tracking modernization of the
Water Management in Romania; [15]
o HIDROSIS project implements an automated system for monitoring the Someşul Mic river
basin in the prosecution of water quality, flood prevention and environmental protection; [9]
o Sapa-ROM system is a monitoring system (receiving, processing and transmission) and
alarming in case of accidental pollution of the waters in Romania. [11]
90 Alexandra Maria Matei

Table 3. The characteristics of flood management systems adopted at national level

The characteristics
The use of
Visual Methods of
Project conventional The use of a The use of the The use of
representation of sampling of entry
methods or user interface Internet databases
flooded areas data
advanced
Automatic
Conventional hydrometric
DESWAT No No No No
methods stations and
pluviometric posts

Automatic
Conventional hydrometric
WATMAN No No No No
methods stations and
pluviometric posts

Automatic
Conventional hydrometric
HIDROSIS No Yes Yes Yes
methods stations and
pluviometric posts
Conventional Hydrometric
SAPA-ROM No No Yes No
methods stations

On national plan, the projects aim to introduce automation systems for data acquisition and the
methods and techniques for processing the collected data and characteristics of a given river
basin. However, it is recommended the use of artificial intelligence techniques, techniques that
significantly improve the monitoring of river basins and preventing emergency situations as
well as good management and use of data to decision makers level.
The whole process of the hydrological cycle is mathematical formulated through conceptual
models composed of a large number of parameters and quite complicated interaction between
them is therefore very appropriate use of advanced modeling techniques provided by artificial
intelligence.
The accuracy of the model created by conventional methods is very subjective and very
dependent on the project's ability, knowledge and understanding of the characteristics of a
model basin.
Techniques such as artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic, intelligence agents, knowledge-based
systems, expert systems are implemented today for monitoring and prediction river basin
development, their efficiency is beneficial for the prevention of damage to property and persons.
Artificial intelligence tools and techniques hold fast and flexible to implement better solutions
in the field of hydrology performances, such as:
o Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and neuro-fuzzy systems (NFS), which can be created
for streamlining the process of leakage of water production and flood prediction;
o Knowledge-based Systems (KBS) and expert systems (ES), which can offer solutions for
monitoring and analyzing in real time the development of the specific parameters of a river
basin. Also these systems (KBS and ES) can be used successfully in the implementation of
systems for the prevention and alarm in emergency situations;
o Data Mining Techniques (DMT) to extract rules from large databases that store the
parameters of measurement and control of the river basin, rules that can then be included in
expert systems (ES);
 An Analysis of Modern Monitoring and Preventing Techniques of Floods 91

o Multiagent systems (MAS) made up of intelligence agents, which can be used to more
effectively resolve problems arising in simulating hydrological processes because they are
unpredictable and dynamic processes undertaken in a complex, sometimes inaccessible
environment.
Optimizing the monitoring and prevention of floods systems can be done using artificial
intelligence techniques, as they have capacity to solve difficult problems that can not be solved
with centralized, traditional methods. Benefits can be found in the decrease of time response and
improved efficiency of the system.

Conclusions
The progress of artificial intelligence field begins to be reflected in hydrology through specific
research and implement techniques both internationally and nationally, but there are issues that
have not yet been studied.
By improving the prediction and viewing of speed, direction and expansion of water course
during possible flooding, by monitoring the river basin using the techniques of artificial
intelligence, they will provide all necessary information to take immediate measures related to
defense against floods.

References
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2000
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rivers, International Congress on River Basin Management, Turcia, 2007
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92 Alexandra Maria Matei

Analiza tehnicilor moderne

de monitorizare şi prevenire a inundaţiilor

Rezumat

Acest articol prezintă o scurtă analiză a celor mai noi tehnici de monitorizare şi prevenire aplicate
managementului situaţiilor de urgenţă dintr-un bazin hidrografic. Analiza ia în considerare mai multe
sisteme software actuale de monitorizare şi prevenire a inundaţiilor, dezvoltate pe plan naţional şi
internaţional. Utilizarea inteligenţei artificiale în monitorizarea şi prevenirea inundaţiilor a dovedit
performanţe mai bune în comparaţie cu metodele convenţionale. Astfel, pentru îmbunătăţirea eficienţei
acestor metodei, se propune aplicarea următoarelor tehnici de inteligenţă artificială: sisteme expert, data
mining, agenţi inteligenţi.