
Three months after the dana, tools and initiatives continue to emerge that are surprising in demonstrating the magnitude of the tragedy. This week a team of researchers from the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV), belonging to the Geoenvironmental Cartography and Remote Sensing Group (CGAT) of the Department of Cartographic Engineering, Geodesy and Photogrammetry (DICGF), has developed a street-by-street flood map of the municipalities of l’Horta Sud affected by the floods of last October 29th.
This interactive viewer, accessible to anyone through this link, allows to visualize the maximum depth reached at each point of the municipalities of l’Horta Sud.
The tool shows aerial images and place names as they were before the event, along with updated maps based on Open Street Maps. In addition, it uses a color scale to represent water depth: cooler shades indicate shallower and warmer shades indicate deeper water.
By clicking on any colored area, the system provides the maximum depth reached at that point, thus facilitating impact analysis and future action planning.
“This work aims to provide useful information for the affected populations, better understand the nature of the event and provide a key tool for the management of future floods,” said the UPV in a statement.
How was this tool created?
Together with the Escuela Técnica Geodésica, Cartográfica y Topográfica, (ETSIGCyT), the team from the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia carried out this study in three stages. First, they carried out field work to collect field data. A total of 5,097 points were recorded throughout the affected area.
Then, they used that information to create models showing how the water was distributed and what the maximum depths reached were.
Finally, they designed an interactive viewer that allows detailed, street-by-street consultation of the map of the flooded areas.
The depths reached are intended to record what the flooding was really like and may serve as a contrast to the theoretical modeling that will be carried out. “Our work will help to improve the models that predict how water really moves during floods, which will serve to propose more efficient and safer solutions for future floods,” concludes Josep E. Pardo, from the Geoenvironmental Cartography and Remote Sensing Group of the UPV.