Are 2D shallow-water solvers fast enough for early flood warning? A comparative assessment on the 2021 Ahr valley flood event

Abstract

Flash floods pose a distinct challenge compared to traditional fluvial flooding, with infrastructure-based solutions proving less effective. Effective responses hinge on advanced early warning systems providing actionable information, emphasising the necessity for computational flood forecasting models. However, hydrodynamic models, renowned for accuracy and completeness, face limitations due to computational intensity. This study explores two 2D flood forecasting models, RIM2D and SERGHEI, both with GPU implementations which allow us to maximise the forecast lead time. While RIM2D is less computationally intensive, suitable for operational use, SERGHEI, with higher computational costs, targets large-scale high-performance computing (HPC) systems. The assessment of applicability and trade-offs is carried out on the 2021 Eifel flood event, particularly in the lower Ahr valley. A set of simulations were performed at various resolutions from 1 to 10 m, which reveal similar accuracy among both models at coarser resolutions, yet discrepancies arise at finer resolutions due to the distinct formulations. Both models exhibit a rapid computational cost escalation, but at resolutions equal to or coarser than 5 m, forecasts are remarkably faster than the real-time ideal for operational use, paving the way for their use in early warning systems. However, higher resolutions necessitate multi-GPU and HPC capabilities, underlining the importance of embracing such technology in addressing broader flood domains.