This is the presentation given by Ricardo Mantilla at University of Iowa in 2017. It talks about the system implemented in Iowa for flood forecasting in real time

1. The Science of Water Transport and Floods
From Theory to Relevant Applica9ons

2. Connec9ng Rainfall to Flooding

3. Modeling the Land-Surface
Rainfall
Evapora-on
Runoff
Seepage

4. Landscape Decomposi9on
Hillslope-link par--oning = Irregular grid
Hillslope area ~ 0.1 km2
Channel link length ~ 400 m

5. Radar rainfall coverage of Iowa

6. Radar rainfall coverage of Iowa

7. Radar rainfall coverage of Iowa

8. Modeling the Land-Surface
Rainfall
Evapora-on
Runoff
Seepage

9. Mass Conserva-on Equa-ons
Fluxes between control volumes
dsp
dt
= P t( )− qpl − qpc −ep
dsl
dt
= qpl − qls −el
dss
dt
= qls − qsc −es
qpc = k2sp
1.67
and qpl = klsp
qls = kisl and qsc = k3ss
kl = kDRY 1−
sl
Sl
"
#
$
%
&
'
N
Channel Rou-ng
dqc
dt
=
voqc
λ1
Aλ1
1− λ1( )l
qpc + psc
− qc + qu
u∈c
∑
$
%
&
'
(
)
Modeling the Land-Surface (Under the hood)

10. Statewide implementa9on of the HLM-Async Model
Our distributed hydrological model provides streamflow predic9ons everywhere in Iowa

11. HPC Cluster
University of Iowa
Data Center
Virtual Servers
IFC Central
Database Server
Model
Forecasted
Discharge
River Network Topology,
Rainfall Maps
IFIS
Underlying Cyber-Infrastructure: System Overview
Rainfall Maps
HTTP Data Transfer
Reading from DB (TCP 5432)
Wri-ng into DB (TCP 5432)
Push Informa-on Pull Informa-on
Model Forecasted and
Real Stage and Discharge
IFC Real Time Flood
Forecas9ng Model
Iowa Flood
Informa9on System
IFC Rainfall System

12. Flood Time Machine: hXp://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/sc/model_-memachine/

13. Predic9ons from The Model

14. Predic9ons from The Model

15. Flood Time Machine: hXp://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/sc/model_-memachine/
Storm: Sept. 22nd
Flood Crest: Sept. 27th

16. The Na-onal Weather Service contacted the Iowa Flood Center as the event was
evolving to find out what were our es-mates of crest
(Our pla^orm was a second opinion – unprecedented)
Iowa Floods 2016

17. The Na-onal Weather Service contacted the Iowa Flood Center as the event was
evolving to find out what were our es-mates of crest
(Our pla^orm provided forecast at loca-ons where NWS models have not been
implemented/calibrated/validated - unprecedented)
Iowa Floods 2016

18. Iowa Floods 2016
The Na-onal Weather Service contacted the Iowa Flood Center as the event was
evolving to find out what were our es-mates of crest
(Our pla^orm provided forecast at loca-ons where NWS models have not been
implemented/calibrated/validated - unprecedented)

19. To establish community-based programs to improve flood monitoring and
predic9on along Iowa's major waterways and to support ongoing flood
research.

20. Almost 250 Bridge Sensors…

22. Communica9ng Model Results and Sensor Observa9ons