ABSTRACT
In a research project for the Flemish Environment Agency, the application of automatic and intelligent techniques is investigated for the operation of flood control reservoirs. The aim of the project is to develop an algorithm that can be applied for the future regulation of the hydraulic structures that control the reservoirs’ storage. The study case involves two existing flood control reservoirs along the river Demer in Belgium, upstream of the cities of Diest and Aarschot. The city of Diest experienced very severe flooding in September-October 1998. For the river Demer basin, the Flemish Environment Agency developed a full hydrodynamic model for the main rivers, implemented through InfoWorks-RS software. The model links with comprehensive conceptual rainfall-runoff models (PDM models) for all subcatchments in the basin. Rainfall input estimates for these models are based on 15 minutes rainfall intensities usin a large number of rainfall recording gauges. The InfoWorks-RS model recently was extended with a real-time flood forecasting model, implemented in Wallingford Software Ltd’s FloodWorks software. Flood forecasting is based on
rainfall forecasting, both in the short term using radar data and in the long term through weather predictions made by the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium.A data assimilation technique updates the model in real-time (with 15 min time step during critical high flow periods) correcting the model outputs to water level measurements at various locations along the river network.
