Integrated urban flooding analyses with GIS and hydraulic models

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In Canada, urban flooding is a reoccurring disaster. In order to provide insightful urban flooding assessment,the project collaborates with Esri Canada to create an integrated hydraulic-GIS model. Current Esri solutionslack strong hydraulic flood analysis tools. The open source software package Hydrologic EngineeringCenter-River Analysis System (HEC-RAS) developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is awidely used hydraulic model. This project centres on a partnership with Esri Canada to sustain and enhance thecombined use of ArcGIS and HEC-RAS software with a focus on 2D urban pluvial flood modelling. In 2014,HEC-RAS announced and released its new HEC-RAS version 5.0 with 2D capabilities, enabling theapplication of HEC-RAS in urban environments. However, such applications are still limited, probably due tothe lack of direct consideration of urban infrastructure (e.g. buildings and roads, etc.) within the HEC-RASmodelling environment. Fortunately, these urban elements can be considered as certain characteristics (e.g.roughness and impervious percentage) of the watershed. This research aims to create an ArcGIS Pro toolbox toprepare these urban elements to HEC-RAS-known characteristics. On the other hand, the results, includingwater depth and water velocity, derived from the HEC-RAS can be used as inputs and analyzed in ArcGIS Pro.Overlaying the water depth/velocity with flood vulnerability maps will enhance our understanding of the risksfaced by specific communities. The desired spatial statistical techniques for the application described abovecan be realized through the R-ArcGIS Bridge, which allows data to be transmit between ArcGIS and R codewithout the need for data export and re-import for vulnerability and other mapping outputs. The final resultsfrom this project will be integrated into Esri desktop and Web services, to evaluate scientifically urban floodinghazards based on locational data.