The most regular danger from extreme weather and the most expensive natural disaster in the US is flooding. The National Weather Service( NWS) has started adding new experimental flood inundation mapping services to its line of forecast products in an effort to enhance flood warning communication and assist emergency managers in preparing for and responding to flooding. By offering near-real-time, high-resolution, street-level graphics showing where, when, and how much flood lakes are forecast, these new solutions complement and support the release of flood watches and instructions.
According to David Vallee, director of the Service Innovation and Partnership Division at NOAA’s National Water Center,” this novel inundation modeling capability gives emergency and water resource managers practical information to make, mitigate, and react to flood impacts.” ” These services will significantly enhance our capacity to offer our partners impact-based decision help services so they can language people and resources in advance of flood events.”
The new companies are now accessible, offering the first mapping capabilities for more than 30 million Americans, or 10 % of the people, in much of eastern Texas and the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions. Based on the potential for flood, vulnerable communities, and regional cooperation in NOAA presentations of these capabilities, including flooding table exercises, these areas were chosen to receive the initial stage of flood flood maps. Through September 30, 2024, the National Weather Service of NOAA is looking for feedback from the general public on the novel empirical service.
 |
| Beginning on September 26, 2023, more than 30 million people will have access to NWS’s fresh experimental storm flood service in clean areas, including much of eastern Texas, central Pennsylvania, and parts of the Northeast. Credit NOAA |
Three near-real-time products are included in NWS’s new services for disaster influence information:
In 2024, 30 % of the U.S. population will be served by the NWS’s Flood Inundation Mapping services, followed by 60 % in 2025 and 100 % by 2026. Coming releases may include additional Flood Inundation Mapping items. Storm flood function will be available for 3.4 million valley miles covered by National Water Model forecasts and 110, 000 rivers near NWS River Forecast Center forecast point locations when it is completely deployed in 2026.
The NWS National Viewer offers a view of the drawings. Additionally, the data is offered in a common GIS online services structure that makes it simple for emergency and water managers to integrate it into their software. More details about exposure to the visualizations can be found on the National Water Center operations browser.
The National Water Center of NOAA collaborated with the River Forecast Centers and Weather Forecast Offices of the National Weather Service, as well as Federal and another partners, to create the new charts. The Height Above Nearest Drainage( HAND ), a low-complexity, terrain-based approach to flood inundation mapping, is used by new flood mapping services. It creates a” hydrofabric” using the NHDPlus Hydrography stream network dataset and the Digital Elevation Model ( DEM ) created by the USGS( USGS ) 3DElevation Program. In accordance with the location of the stream and creek channel channel, which is represented as vectors or lines, the hydrofabric depicts the land surface elevations at a resolution of 10 meters.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides funding for NOAA’s fresh experimental Flood Inundation Maps and modeling services as well as next-generation water modeling initiatives like modernized rainfall frequency and likely highest studies. To find out more about current and upcoming financing options, please visit the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law site.
Resources: New Storm Flood Maps and Services Story Map
