Integrated Sensing and Prediction of Flash Floods for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex (DFW)

Given the high population density in urban areas, high-resolution observing and modeling capabilities are necessary for improved monitoring and prediction of flash floods. For such applications, the use of weather radar and distributed hydrologic modeling is a natural progression. High-resolution distributed modeling, however, is subject to scale-dependent errors due to inaccuracies in precipitation observation and in model parameters and structures. Widely varying imperviousness in land cover, density, capacity, and complexity of storm drain networks present additional challenges. In this presentation, we describe the various efforts that are currently ongoing in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex area for integrated sensing and prediction of urban water: real-time flash flood forecasting, inundation mapping, soil moisture sensing, water level sensing of urban streams, crowdsourcing of water observations, assimilation of traditional and crowdsourced observations for street and river flooding, and causal discovery for decision support.