Identifying Modelling Issues through the Use of an Open Real-World Flood Dataset
Vasilis Bellos,
Ioannis Kourtis,
Eirini Raptaki,
Spyros Handrinos,
John Kalogiros,
Ioannis A. Sibetheros,
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
Affiliations
Vasilis Bellos
Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace, 12 Vas. Sofias St., 67100 Xanthi, Greece
Ioannis Kourtis
Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning, Laboratory of Reclamation Works and Water Resources Management, School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece
Eirini Raptaki
Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning, Laboratory of Reclamation Works and Water Resources Management, School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece
Spyros Handrinos
MSc Civil Engineering Program, Department of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 Delft, The Netherlands
John Kalogiros
Institute for Environmental Research and Sustainable Development, National Observatory of Athens, I. Metaxas & Vassilis Pavlou St., Old Penteli, 15236 Athens, Greece
Ioannis A. Sibetheros
Department of Civil Engineering, School of Engineering, University of West Attica, 250 Petrou Ralli & Thivon St., Egaleo, 12244 Athens, Greece
Vassilios A. Tsihrintzis
Centre for the Assessment of Natural Hazards and Proactive Planning, Laboratory of Reclamation Works and Water Resources Management, School of Rural, Surveying and Geoinformatics Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, 9 Heroon Polytechniou St., Zografou, 15780 Athens, Greece
The present work deals with the reconstruction of the flood wave that hit Mandra town (Athens, Greece) on 15 November 2017, using the framework of forensic hydrology. The flash flood event was caused by a huge storm event with a high level of spatial and temporal variability, which was part of the Medicane Numa-Zenon. The reconstruction included: (a) the post-event collection of 44 maximum water depth traces in the town; and (b) the hydrodynamic simulation employing the HEC-RAS and MIKE FLOOD software. The derived open dataset (which also includes additional data required for hydrodynamic modeling) is shared with the community for possible use as a benchmark case for flood model developers. With regards to the modeling issues, we investigate the calibration strategies in computationally demanding cases, and test whether the calibrated parameters can be blindly transferred to another simulator (informed modeling). Regarding the calibration, it seems that the coupling of an initial screening phase with a simple grid-search algorithm is efficient. On the other hand, the informed modeling concept does not work for our study area: every numerical model has its own dynamics while the parameters are of grey-box nature. As a result, the modeler should always be skeptical about their global use.
