The Fathom global flood hazard data provides an overview of flood hazard across a range of return periods in the form of 3 arcsecond (~90 m) resolution flood maps. The data is intended to give users an overview of flood risk in cities for which such data has previously been unavailable – particularly in the developing world. The general lack of high quality terrain, river and rainfall data in such regions makes flood modelling very challenging, and the Fathom team are at the forefront of academic research in this field. The data includes return periods of 5, 10, 20, 50, 75, 100, 200, 250, 500 & 1000 years for Fluvial (Riverine) & Pluvial (Surface Water) undefended Flood Hazard.
The data was produced using the Fathom Global Flood Hazard Model version 2.0, full details of which are available in the open-access scientific papers referenced below. The model simulates both fluvial (riverine) and pluvial (surface-water) flooding, using a method known as regionalisation to best estimate the behaviour of river catchments under flood conditions. The principle behind this method is to group similar catchments together and infer the behaviour of those that do not have observational data for from those that do have observational data. The terrain data used for the model is derived from the MERIT DEM, the academic communities most advanced global digital elevation model (DEM). This DEM has been created 3 arcsecond (~90m) resolution from a range of input datasets to help control for errors from sources such as vegetation, buildings and satellite orbital anomalies. While 1 arcsecond (~30 m) global DEMs do exist, their vertical accuracy at the pixel level is not good enough to provide any benefit for flood models whose primary sensitivity is to the vertical accuracy of terrain data. Flood defences are simulated dynamically by the model, using economic indicators to estimate the design standard of flood defences in different regions. Maps of water depths for return periods ranging from the 1-in-5 year (low-magnitude, high-frequency) to the 1-in-1000 year (high-magnitude, low-frequency). Maps are available at each return period for undefended fluvial (riverine) flooding, as well as for surface water (pluvial) flooding.
Key Applications:
o Insurance analytics
o Disaster response and resilience planning
o Supply chain risk management
o Large-scale strategic planning (note the data should not be used to make local engineering decisions but may be valuable in determining where local engineering studies will be required).
Technical Characteristics:
o Spatial Reference WGS84 – EPSG 4326
o Format - GeoTIFF
o Resolution - 90 Metres
Defended Flood Hazard dataset is available under request please contact us through hello@oasishub.co
Customer reviews