Accurate and timely surface precipitation measurements are crucial for water resources management, agriculture, weather prediction, climate research, as well as ground validation of satellite-based precipitation estimates. However, the majority of the land surface of the earth lacks such data, and in many parts of the world the density of surface precipitation gauging networks is even rapidly declining. This development can potentially be counteracted by using received signal level data from the enormous number of microwave links used worldwide in commercial cellular communication networks. Along such links, radio signals propagate from a transmitting antenna at one base station to a receiving antenna at another base station. Rain-induced attenuation and, subsequently, path-averaged rainfall intensity can be retrieved from the signal’s attenuation between transmitter and receiver. Here, we show how one such a network can be used to retrieve the space–time dynamics of rainfall for an entire country (The Netherlands, ∼35,500 km2), based on an unprecedented number of links (∼2,400) and a rainfall retrieval algorithm that can be applied in real time. This demonstrates the potential of such networks for real-time rainfall monitoring, in particular in those parts of the world where networks of dedicated ground-based rainfall sensors are often virtually absent.

Three Years of Country-Wide Rainfall Maps from Cellular Communication Networks

Flood risk and its reduction in China

Flash floods are widely recognized as one of the most devastating natural hazards in the world, therefore prediction of flash flood-prone areas is crucial for public safety and emergency management. This research proposes a new methodology for spatial prediction of flash floods based on Sentinel-1 SAR imagery and a new hybrid machine learning technique. The SAR imagery is used to detect flash flood inundation areas, whereas the new machine learning technique, which is a hybrid of the firefly algorithm (FA), Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) backpropagation, and an artificial neural network (named as FA-LM-ANN), was used to construct the prediction model. The Bac Ha Bao Yen (BHBY) area in the northwestern region of Vietnam was used as a case study. Accordingly, a Geographical Information System (GIS) database was constructed using 12 input variables (elevation, slope, aspect, curvature, topographic wetness index, stream power index, toposhade, stream density, rainfall, normalized difference vegetation index, soil type, and lithology) and subsequently the output of flood inundation areas was mapped. Using the database and FA-LM-ANN, the flash flood model was trained and verified. The model performance was validated via various performance metrics including the classification accuracy rate, the area under the curve, precision, and recall. Then, the flash flood model that produced the highest performance was compared with benchmarks, indicating that the combination of FA and LM backpropagation is proven to be very effective and the proposed FA-LM-ANN is a new and useful tool for predicting flash flood susceptibility.

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A Novel Hybrid Swarm Optimized Multilayer Neural Network for Spatial Prediction of Flash Floods in Tropical Areas Using Sentinel-1 SAR Imagery and Geospatial Data.

Projection and uncertainty of precipitation extremes in the CMIP5 multimodel ensembles over nine major basins in China

XGBoost-based method for flash flood risk assessment

Flash floods are one of the most disastrous natural hazards and cause serious loss of life and economic damage every year. Flooding frequently affects many regions in China, including periodically catastrophic events. An extensive compilation of the available data has been conducted across various hydroclimatological regions to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of flash floods in China. This inventory includes over 782 documented events and is the first step toward establishing an atlas of extreme flash flood occurrences in China. This paper first presents the data compilation strategy, details of the database contents, and the typical examples of first-hand analysis results. The subsequent analysis indicates that the most extreme flash floods originate mainly from small catchments over complex terrains and results in dominantly small- and medium-sized flooding events in terms of scales; however, these events, abrupt and seasonally recurrent in nature, account for a large proportion of the overall flooding-related disasters, especially disproportionately affecting elderly and youth populations. Finally, this study also recommends several immediate measures could be implemented to mitigate high impacts of deadly flash floods, although it still requires long-term significant efforts to protect human life and property in a country like China.

Analysis of flash flood disaster characteristics in China from 2011 to 2015

The National Flash Flood Prevention Project, which mainly consists of non-structural and supplementary structural measures, has been conducted for 6 years in China. Some preliminary achievements have contributed to the prevention of flash flood in China. Based on the latest information, this article introduces China’s flash flood prevention system, primarily from the perspective of its development process, components, investment, and characteristics. To date, the system has incorporated many distinguished large-scale features such as the largest rain gauge network (approximately 0.5 million stations) in the world, massive disaster observation and preparedness networks, people-and-expert combined monitoring and forecasting data integration system, and a vast implementation area. Based on its early achievements and some typical case investigations of such flash flood prevention system, the article also discusses China’s prospects for preventing flash flood disasters in the future.

A comprehensive flash flood defense system in China: overview, achievements, and outlook

Flash floods induced by heavy rainfall occur frequently in China, which cause severe damages or even casualties every year. Flash floods generally occur in small catchments, and therefore were poorly documented. A Database including 963 flash flood events in China is compiled and studied in this study. Analytical results (a) indicate flash flood condition in China; (b) shed light on the spatial-temporal distribution of flash flood under heavy rainfall and (c) detect the characteristics of the 2016 flash flood. In 2016, the deaths due to flash floods were severe and concentrated, accounting for about half of the elderly and children. Hebei and Fujian provinces were most affected by flash floods. The disasters mainly occurred in July and the major types were river floods. Despite the frequent torrential rains, inadequate monitoring and early warning systems made the flash flooding condition even worse in 2016.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4441/10/6/704/pdf

Characterizing the Flash Flooding Risks from 2011 to 2016 over China

A novel water level alarm consists of a water level monitoring device and a wireless water level alarm device, wherein the water level monitoring device comprises a power supply, an MCU controller I, an ultrasonic water level distance detecting device, a fixed water level height detecting device, an audible and visual alarm structure and a wireless data transmitter. The MCU controller I is electrically connected with the ultrasonic water level distance detecting device, the fixed water level height detecting device, the audible and visual alarm structure and the wireless data transmitter respectively. The wireless water level alarm device comprises a power supply, an MCU controller II, a wireless receiver, a water level height corrector, a storage device and a water level early warning device. The MCU controller II is electrically connected with the wireless receiver, the water level height corrector and the water level early warning device respectively. The wireless receiver is used for receiving water level height information of the water level distance detecting device. The water level early warning device comprises a voice synthesis chip and a digital amplifier broadcasting device and produces a broadcasting alarm when a detected water level value is up to a water level alarm value.

Bingshun He

Papers

Analysis of flash flood disaster characteristics in China from 2011 to 2015

XGBoost-based method for flash flood risk assessment

A comprehensive flash flood defense system in China: overview, achievements, and outlook

Characterizing the Flash Flooding Risks from 2011 to 2016 over China

Novel water level alarm