Communications of the ACM
Researchers Develop Model to Assess for Flood Hazards
The widespread flooding that submerged parts of the Canadian provinces most densely populated regions in 2017 and 2019 exposed important gaps in Quebecs flood preparedness regime.
Credit: Kelly Sikkema/Unsplash
Canadian and U.K. scientists led by a team at Canada's Concordia University have developed a new technique for generating a watershed-scale flood risk model based on Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data.
LiDAR can yield a precise, dated, time-stamped water surface reading, which the researchers paired with river discharge data from the Ministry of Environment and Fight Against Climate Change to calculate riverbed depth.
Awareness of a river’s carrying capacity can provide public safety officials enough time to warn local residents when models predict conditions that can lead to flooding.
The initiative is part of Quebec's Project INFO-Crue, an effort to update flood maps in 50 watersheds (drainage basins) that were prioritized following recent floods.
From Concordia University (Canada)
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