A decision support system for optimum use of multisensor information in flood forecasting

Abstract

The hydrometeorological and conceptual bases and guidelines for the implementation of a Decision Support System (DSS) able to provide policy makers and local civil protection authorities with suitable procedures in order to issue flash flood warnings in the southern European regions are presented in this paper. The research was undertaken within the EU Environment project STORM'93, aiming at the optimum use of multisensor monitoring tools in supporting flood forecasting applications. The proposed DSS is designed to improve cross‐fertilizing interactions and proper interpretation of data coming from different monitoring tools, addressing in particular radar and satellite derived rainfall estimates together with the traditional use of rain‐gauge networks and weather map forecasts. The structure of the system is oriented to a suitable non‐traditional approach, based on distributed warnings, to the assessment of flood hazard at the regional scale.