Inundation Modeling in Data Scarce Regions

Zvika Ben-Haim, Vladimir Anisimov, Aaron Yonas, Varun Gulshan, Yusef Shafi, Stephan Hoyer, Sella Nevo

Abstract: Flood forecasts are crucial for effective individual and governmental protective action. The vast majority of flood-related casualties occur in developing countries, where providing spatially accurate forecasts is a challenge due to scarcity of data and lack of funding. This paper describes an operational system providing flood extent forecast maps covering several flood-prone regions in India, with the goal of being sufficiently scalable and cost-efficient to facilitate the establishment of effective flood forecasting systems globally.