Flood Monitoring and Warning Systems: A Brief Review

Abstract

Floods and excessive rainfall are unavoidable phenomena that can cause massive loss of people's lives and destruction of infrastructure. Flash floods rise rapidly in flood-prone areas, resulting in property damage, but the impact on human lives is relatively preventable by the presence of monitoring systems. Although there are many systems widely in practice by disaster management agencies in monitoring flood levels, most of these systems are limited range and sophisticated to be used and maintained. Furthermore, in most developing countries, the conventional flood gates in water canals are manually operated and suffer from the lack of real-time monitoring of water levels, leading to an overflow in the channels and flash floods. On top of that, the lacking accurate data analysis in the system that can be accessed is one of the limitations of the conventional flood monitoring and warning systems (FMWS). Therefore, in this paper, we have explored and reviewed the existing methods of flood monitoring and emphasizing their structure and sensing techniques. We have also classified and compared their advantages and limitations and accordingly suggested new solutions and improvements by utilizing new technologies based on the Internet of Things. This paper introduces a detailed mini-review of sensing methods in the existing flood systems as reported in previous studies to serve as a quick guide to researchers who are engaging in this field. Based on the review, conclusions have been drawn.