The Implement of a Flooding Information System

Abstract

As we know that absolute immunity from flood damage is not physically possible. However, with proper planning and continuous effort we can certainly look forward to an appreciable diminution of distress with an accelerated implementation of flood management measures. It is commonly accepted that the measures to mitigate flood losses need to be given the most efforts wherein Flooding Information System (FIS) is the primary measure of flood mitigation. Nowadays, the web-based Geographic Information System (GIS) is so popular and quite easy to combine with other field instruments for becoming another format of information system, such as FIS in this study even though it is still not quite popular and familiar yet. The use of FIS can be viewed mainly as a physical method of protection from floods and it first needs to effectively measure the flood influence in which flooded area and height may be the most desired measures for each of typhoon-induced flood events. Furthermore, the geographic modeling tools are then added to estimate the scale of we face from typhoon-induced flooding from a computational perspective. The flood scale in terms of geographic volumes thru initial field flooding area and height may be the major contribution to make protection measures in advance. Field instruments include various flood mark recording devices. A number of new-designed stream gauges were installed in the low-lying plains to experience floods for recording their flood heights as a measure of flooded areas. As for real-time information, we set up the electronic stream gauges of the stilling well, which measured the height of a float in a hole dug alongside a stream channel. In addition, we also used other types of stream gauge include the pressure transducer, which inferred the depth of water in a stilling well by measuring the pressure of the column of water inside. The gage height values, taken at regular intervals, were recorded and transmitted electronically to the dedicated databases. Unfortunately, the verification did not show a satisfactory result as expected. However, as a general conclusion, with the right and sufficient field instruments, the FIS may provide accurately real-time flooding information to give protection or evacuation in advance provided that internal geographic data inside the system set up well at the first place.