Flash floods in Mediterranean catchments: a meta-model decision support system based on Bayesian networks

Natural disasters, especially those related to water—like storms and floods—have increased over the last decades both in number and intensity. Under the current Climate Change framework, several reports predict an increase in the intensity and duration of these extreme climatic events, where the Med...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ropero, Rosa F., Flores Gallego, María Julia, Rumí, Rafael
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/45706
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10651-023-00587-2
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10651-023-00587-2
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/45706
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Bayesian networks
Decision support system
Flood risk
Regression model
Rule-based meta-model
Unsupervised classification
Descripción
Sumario:Natural disasters, especially those related to water—like storms and floods—have increased over the last decades both in number and intensity. Under the current Climate Change framework, several reports predict an increase in the intensity and duration of these extreme climatic events, where the Mediterranean area would be one of the most affected. This paper develops a decision support system based on Bayesian inference able to predict a flood alert in Andalusian Mediterranean catchments. The key point is that, using simple weather forecasts and live measurements of river level, we can get a flood-alert several hours before it happens. A set of models based on Bayesian networks was learnt for each of the catchments included in the study area, and joined together into a more complex model based on a rule system. This final meta-model was validated using data from both non-extreme and extreme storm events. Results show that the methodology proposed provides an accurate forecast of the flood situation of the greatest catchment areas of Andalusia.