Monitoring and Comparing: A Cartographic Web Application for Real-time Visualization of Hydrological Data

Abstract

As decision support in flood warning, experts within crisis management groups need readily available real-time data, and real-time visualization derived from them. Up until now, work steps including acquisition, harmonization, storage, processing, visualization and archiving of data have been accomplished manually or semi-automated. In a cartographic real-time application, these worksteps have to be achieved online and error-free. The presented web application and the generated real-time visualization products are based on a viable data model which is extendable by additional measurement or model ouput data. By means of a graphical user interface, users may overview the most current hydrological situation in the form of automatically processed real-time maps. In addition, these maps may be interactively compiled, depending on users’ needs, on different levels of detail, and in various thematic combinations. In order to classify the most current hydrological situation in the historical context, i.e., to eventually learn from the past, the application also allows to easily create visualizations of past flood events. Data from a long-term, high-resolution archive undergo the same cartographic rules and abstraction as real-time data for the purpose of direct comparisons.