Probabilistic Forecasts of Flood Inundation Maps Using Surrogate Models

Abstract

The use of data-driven surrogate models to produce deterministic flood inundation maps in a timely manner has been investigated and proposed as an additional component for flood early warning systems. This study explores the potential of such surrogate models to forecast multiple inundation maps in order to generate probabilistic outputs and assesses the impact of including quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs) in the set of predictors. The use of a k-fold approach for training an ensemble of flood inundation surrogate models that replicate the behavior of a physics-based hydraulic model is proposed. The models are used to forecast the inundation maps resulting from three out-of-the-dataset intense rainfall events both using and not using QPFs as a predictor, and the outputs are compared against the maps produced by a physics-based hydrodynamic model. The results show that the k-fold ensemble approach has the potential to capture the uncertainties related to the process of surrogating a hydrodynamic model. Results also indicate that the inclusion of the QPFs has the potential to increase the sharpness, with the tread-off also increasing the bias of the forecasts issued for lead times longer than 2 h.

Keywords

• rapid flood forecasting
• flood inundation
• flash flood
• surrogate model
• machine learning
• ensemble forecasting