This project provided an in-depth comparison between a web-based implementation of HAND (Figure 1) and the implementation created at the National Water Center (NWC) in terms of the quality of flood maps generated by both approaches. The former is simpler and closer to the original concept of HAND whereas the latter is well-designed to work with complex auxiliary data within the U.S. The results of this study demonstrate the efficacy of the original HAND in flood extent prediction. It requires far fewer computational resources and data dependencies compared to the well-studied NWCH implementation thanks to its simple computation framework. The original HAND is especially suitable for applications where we need acceptable accuracy but fast results, where the inputs, such as DEM, are at constant changes, and where we need to deal with inputs not following pre-defined settings of NWC’s HAND implementation, such as water depth observations collected not at the catchment outlets defined in NHDPlus dataset (Figure 2).
Related Articles
- Li, Z., Duque, F.Q., Grout, T., Bates, B. and Demir, I., 2023. Comparative analysis of performance and mechanisms of flood inundation map generation using Height Above Nearest Drainage. Environmental Modelling & Software, 159, p.105565.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105565 - Li, Z. and Demir, I., 2022. A comprehensive web-based system for flood inundation map generation and comparative analysis based on height above nearest drainage. Science of The Total Environment, 828, p.154420.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154420
Figure 1
Figure 2
