Discharge Interval method for uncertain flood forecasts using a flood model chain: City of Kulmbach

Abstract

Real-time flood forecasting can help authorities in providing reliable warnings to the public. Ensemble prediction systems (EPS) have been progressively used for operational flood forecasting by European hydrometeorological agencies in recent years. This process, however, is non-deterministic such that uncertainty sources need to be considered before issuing forecasts. In this study, a new methodology for flood forecasting named Discharge Interval method is proposed. This method uses at least one historical event hindcast data, run in several ensembles and selects a pair of best ensemble discharge results for every certain discharge level. Later, the method uses the same parameter settings of the chosen ensemble discharge pair to forecast any certain flood discharge level. The methodology was implemented within the FloodEvac tool. The tool can handle calibration/ validation of the hydrological model (LARSIM) and produces real-time flood forecasts with the associated uncertainty of the flood discharges. The proposed methodology is computationally efficient and suitable for real-time forecasts with uncertainty. The results using the Discharge Interval method were found comparable to the 90th percentile forecasted discharge range obtained with the Ensemble method.