In recent years, the availability of new emerging data (e.g. remote sensing, intelligent wireless sensors, etc) has led to a sudden shift from a data-sparse to a data-rich environment for hydrological and hydraulic modelling. This course aims at providing a theoretical understanding and a practical introduction to the use of innovative data to support flood monitoring and modelling.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of the course, the participants will be able to:

familiarise with the most recent type of data to monitor rivers and floodplains;
use remote sensing data to support hydrological and hydraulic models;
build, calibrate and validate flood models using new type of data.

Target group

The course is designed for scientists and engineers involved in flood modelling. Pre-requisites are knowledge about hydrology and hydraulics and some experience in flood modelling.

Course content

The course will describe the capability of new sources of data to monitor rivers and floodplain and assist advanced flood modelling.

Specific contents are:

Flood models: calibration, validation and uncertainty analysis
Advanced experiences in flood modelling
New generation of data to support flood monitoring and modelling
Remote sensing data: satellite and airborne images to support hydraulic models (e.g. LiDAR, ERS-2 SAR, SRTM, ENVISAT ASAR)
Soil moisture distribution, derived from satellite images, to support hydrological models
Flood extent maps, derived from satellite or airborne images, to support hydraulic models
New emerging wireless sensors (e.g. GridStix) to monitor rivers and floodplains
Practical exercise on advanced flood modelling: calibration, validation and uncertainty analysis