Low-cost inundation modelling at the reach scale with sparse data in the Lower Damodar River basin, India

Sanyal, J.; Carbonneau, P.; Densmore, A.L.

Abstract

Data unavailability is the main reason for limited applications of hydrodynamic models for predicting inundation in the developing world. This paper aims to generate moderately high-resolution hybrid terrain data by merging height information from low-cost Indian Remote Sensing satellite (IRS) Cartosat-1 stereo satellite images, freely-available Shuttle Radar Topograph Mission (SRTM) digital elevation model (DEM) data, and limited surveyed channel cross-sections. The study reach is characterized by anabranching channels that are associated with channel bifurcation, loops and river islands. We compared the performance of a simple 1D–2D coupled LISFLOOD-FP model and a complex fully 2D finite element TELEMAC-2D model with the hybrid terrain data. The results show that TELEMAC-2D produced significantly improved simulated inundation with the hybrid terrain data, as compared to the SRTM DEM. LISFLOOD-FP was found unsuitable to work with the hybrid DEM in a complicated fluvial environment, as it failed to efficiently divert water in the branches from the main channel.

Citation

Sanyal, J., Carbonneau, P., & Densmore, A. (2014). Low-cost inundation modelling at the reach scale with sparse data in the Lower Damodar River basin, India. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 59(12), 2086-2102. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2014.884718

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 30, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Oct 20, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014-12
• Deposit Date: Jan 6, 2017
• Journal: Hydrological Sciences Journal
• Print ISSN: 0262-6667
• Electronic ISSN: 2150-3435
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 59
• Issue: 12
• Pages: 2086-2102
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2014.884718