With Korea having seen increases in the frequency of major storms and flooding in recent years, researchers at the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology have assembled a system that will allow them to provide limited advance warning of flash floods, according to a press release from the National Research Council of Science & Technology. Intended to supplement the existing heavy rain alerts, the system combines rainfall radar data from the Ministry of Environment with information on regional flood characteristics to generate its outputs, and a four-year pilot program using the system has shown it has been able to accurately forecast flash floods an hour in advance in all areas of Korea. Based on the pilot program, the system was able to successfully forecast flash floods in 90.3 per cent of the 31 examined heavy rainfall events.
Says Dr. Hwang Seokhwan, leader of the research team, in the release, “No matter how accurate a forecasting is, its forecast does not have any value as information if it does not come soon enough. This forecasting system is expected to significantly reduce the casualties and property damage caused by flash floods as their coming can be predicted at least one hour in advance.”
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