Floods are one of the most common hazards in the United States and Asia, however not all floods are alike. Some floods develop slowly, while others such as flash floods, can develop in just a few minutes and without visible signs of rain. Additionally, floods can be local, impacting a neighborhood or community, or very large, affecting entire river basins and multiple states. Throughout the last century flooding has been one of the most costly disasters in terms of both property damage and human casualties, which leads us to develop another volume on this important aspect of natural disaster.
This book will report on advances in modeling, mapping and predicting flood hazard and risk at the global scale. The book will describe different modeling approaches as well as remotely sensed data sets to predict and map flood risk at large scales, ranging from continental to global. Recently, many scientist teams attempt to roll out models and data sets for flood hazard and risk globally with ever increasing accuracy and resolution, allowing the research, humanitarian and development sectors to engage decision-making processes based on better actionable information. This is precisely what the proposed book will outline. First, a number of chapters assembling relevant remote sensing data sets will be put together, followed by chapters that focus on global scale modeling approaches, ranging from hydrological models to 2-D flood inundation models as well as global flood forecasting models such as ECMWF’s/JRC’s GLOFAS model. Finally, the book will report on how these data and models may be effectively used by the humanitarian and development sector to inform decision-making processes.
This volume will be valuable to researchers in Earth Sciences, remote sensing scientists, geophysicists, environmental scientists, and engineers. This book will also be attractive to engineers and geophysicists working in the civil engineering and planning sector, to environmental consultants and to policy makers at governmental and intergovernmental organizations. This book can be a reference book for scientists from graduate levels to experts with an interest in global scale modeling and predictions of flood hydrology and flood disasters. The target audience is therefore wide and this book could potentially reach several thousands of individuals.
