Modeling rainfall-induced 2D inundation simulation based on the ANN-derived models with precipitation and water-level measurements at roadside IoT sensors

Sci Rep. 2023 Oct 17;13(1):17664. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-44276-3.

Abstract

This study aims to develop a smart model for carrying out two-dimensional (2D) inundation simulation by estimating the gridded inundation depths via the ANN-derived models (ANN_GA-SA_MTF), named SM_EID_2D model. Within the SM_EID_2D model, the rainfall-induced inundation depths at the IoT sensors (i.e., IOT-based grids) are first estimated to be then used in the estimation of inundation depths at the ungauged grids (VIOT-based grids), the resulting flood extents and spatial distribution of inundation of what could be achieved. To facilitate the reliability of the proposed SM_EID_2D model in the 2D inundation simulation, a considerable number of rainfall-induced flood events are generated as the training datasets by coupling the hydrodynamic numerical model (SOBEK) with the simulated gridded rainstorms. To proceed with the model validation and application, the Miaoli City of North Taiwan is selected as the study area, and the associated hydrological and geographical data are adopted in the generation of the training datasets. The results from the model validation indicate that the proposed SM_EID_2D model could provide the gridded inundation-depth hydrographs with a low bias (about 0.02 m) and a high fitness to the validated data (nearly 0.7); also, the spatial distribution of inundated and non-inundated grids as well as the induced flooding extent provided could be well emulated by the proposed SM_EID_2D model under acceptable reliability (0.7). The proposed SM_EID_2D model is also advantageous for the 2D inundation simulation in the real-time delineated subbasins by assembling the emulated inundation depths at the specific grids.