Presentation by Roel de Goede (Deltares, Netherlands), at the Delft3D User Days, during Delft Software Days - Edition 2022. Wednesday, 16 November 2022.

1. 2022-11-16
Developing large scale and
fast compound flood models
for Australian coastlines
Delft Software Days – Roel de Goede
Acknowledgements
• Simone De Kleermaeker, Matthijs Lemans, Mark Hegnauer, Maarten van Ormondt, Tim
Leijnse, and others (Deltares)
• Cameron Druery (Worley - waterRIDE)
• Yenory Morales (Water Technology)
• Luke Balasingham, Shoni Maguire, Mark Menzel, Mark Dyall (Australian Climate Service)

2. Content
• Project need during Australian Floods
• The Flood Inundation Forecasting System in Proof of
Concept phase (FliFS PoC)
• Lessons learned and next steps
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
2
Maitland
Camden, Western Sydney

3. Project need
• Flooding, cyclones and severe storms have a significant impact
on Australia’s economy.
• Especially in 2022 they again have shown the vulnerability of
low-lying areas in floodplains and along the coast to flooding
• To help mitigate the impacts, emergency services benefit from
accurate real-time flood inundation forecasts to support
decision-making before, during, and after events.
• This requires a sophisticated early warning system capable of
integrating real-time data and fast, nation-scale compound
modeling tools
• The solution needed to be:
− Able to be shared across governments and more widely
− Linked to official forecasts/warnings where possible
− Provide an open approach to the modelling
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
3
Photograph: NEW SOUTH WALES STATE
EMERGENCY/AFP/Getty Images

4. Project challenges
- Bringing in real-time data from multiple sources
- Integration of multiple models to account for river discharge, precipitation and storm surges
- Cover 7000+ (!) km of coastline
- System needed to be fast
- Project timeline of 2 months
… and then it also started to rain heavily in Australia during the project
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
4

5. X
FliFS in action – Brisbane feb 2022
FliFS providing maximum
inundation extent + water depth
for the next 5 days
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
5

6. Project outline
The four components of the PoC
6
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022

7. Modelling framework
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
7
How to make models for 7000+ km and automatically link wflow and SFINCS?

8. wflow
• Open-source, physically based model for
modelling hydrological processes
• Using (mostly global) open data sets
• Domains based on catchments areas
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
8
https://deltares.github.io/Wflow.jl/dev/

9. wflow
13 models
(NSW, QLD, NT)
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
9
Observed +
NWP (ACCESS-G)
https://deltares.github.io/
Wflow.jl/dev/

10. SFINCS – model setup
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
10
Initially based on global DEM, when available, local topobathy data is used

11. SFINCS – model forcing
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
11
NWP (ACCESS-G)

12. SFINCS – Bohle 2019
FliFS
PoC
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Software
Days
2022
12
For most locations, no high-resolution DEM was available …

13. SFINCS – Bohle 2019
FliFS
PoC
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Delft
Software
Days
2022
13

14. SFINCS – Brisbane 2011
Observed (red)
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
14

15. SFINCS – Brisbane 2011
Observed and simulated, Moggil and Brisbane City Alert
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022
15

16. SFINCS – Brisbane 2011 Flood extent
16
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022

17. Lessons learned and next steps
17
Combining Delft Dashboard and HydroMT can be quite powerful for quickly setting up models
• Using watershed data can provide ‘physically correct‘ model delineation
• If wflow and SFINCS models are setup based on same data layers in HydroMT, connections of river
input points are easily made
The FliFS POC has proved that a multi-model approach can be taken to deliver appropriate flood
inundation information over large areas, but in the next phase:
• Use local data (DEM, reservoir operations etc) as much as possible to improve the model chain
• Validation against flood footprints (Copernicus/QFES damage data/other remote sensed
information)
FliFS
PoC
–
Delft
Software
Days
2022

18. Contact
www.deltares.nl
info@deltares.nl
@deltares
@deltares
linkedin.com/company/deltares
facebook.com/deltaresNL