Real-time early warning system design for pluvial flash floods—a review

Abstract

Pluvial flash floods in urban areas are becoming increasingly frequent due to climate change and human actions, negatively impacting the life, work, production and infrastructure of a population. Pluvial flooding occurs when intense rainfall overflows the limits of urban drainage and water accumulation causes hazardous flash floods. Although flash floods are hard to predict given their rapid formation, Early Warning Systems (EWS) are used to minimize casualties. We performed a systematic review to define the basic structure of an EWS for rain flash floods. The structure of the review is as follows: first, Section 2 describes the most important factors that affect the intensity of pluvial flash floods during rainfall events. Section 3 defines the key elements and actors involved in an effective EWS. Section 4 reviews different EWS architectures for pluvial flash floods implemented worldwide. It was identified that the reviewed projects did not follow guidelines to design early warning systems, neglecting important aspects that must be taken into account in their implementation. Therefore, this manuscript proposes a basic structure for an effective EWS for pluvial flash floods that guarantees the forecasting process and alerts dissemination during rainfall events.