An Automated Cloud-Based Hydrodynamic Flood Modeling Workflow

High-resolution flood modeling typically requires significant effort to preprocess input data (domain delineation, digital elevation model conditioning, computational mesh/grid generation, boundary condition and input file preparation), simulate a flood, and post-process the results. Here, we present a method to programmatically and seamlessly delineate domains based on watersheds, generate input files, identify and assign riverine and coastal boundary conditions, and create custom meshes for Telemac-2D, a finite element hydraulic model. We developed an automated pipeline that merges and processes topo-bathymetric digital elevation models (DEMs) for use in the hydrodynamic model. Our modeling framework, built around Telemac-2D, uses the resulting DEMs in conjunction with extreme flood and precipitation data from Jupiter’s ClimateScore Global (CSG) product to quickly run end-to-end simulations of coastal, fluvial, and pluvial flooding on a cloud computing platform. Our approach significantly reduces the typically time-intensive manual effort required in flood modeling studies, and allows for scalable computation of geographically diverse domains while keeping development time low. We demonstrate these results with multiple case study examples to illustrate the main mechanisms of this method.