Detail

Flood Emergency Simulator

In Portugal, Flood Emergency planning and management (EM) is based on Flood Emergency Special Plans. In Dam Break emergencies, Emergency Plans (EP) aim to protect people and assets and result from the direct intervention of the Fire and Civil Protection National Service (SNBPC) and the Water Institute.
One of this project partners supports the scientific and technologic development of EPs, in the areas of flood wave propagation modelling and warning and information systems.
PEs require a modern management system, enabling flexible access to updateable information and the control of
specialised rescue teams. Large scale training of operative prsonnell is expensive and not very realistic. One way to solve this problem is to “generate” natural or induced flooding, as well as the SNBPC response, through simulation using one spatial-temporal representation.
The simulator is justified by the need to concurrently study phenomena with explicit and implicit representation
(e.g. flooding and inter-relating individuals). Agent-based simulation enables interaction and communication
between several actors involved in the process. They can also represent situations where individuals have complex and differentiated behaviours, with the aim of studying the global emergent consequences resulting from the interaction process.
The latest generation of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is object-oriented (OO), enabling the representation and manipulation of spatial elements, which can be adapted, extended or reformulated. One of the characteristics of agents is the fact that they are inherently OO. In this project, agents should be able to reason and decide in a EP context, using geo-referenced information.
The simulator, immersed in a GIS, will be able to define emergency scenarios which will include available PE
resources, actors and roles. The system dynamics will be visualised in a graphical interface representing the
emergency scenario while parameters characterising this dynamics will be registered during the simulation period, for later analysis. Agents will use profiled cognitive capacities and will be able to develop new behaviours. Moreover, the user should be able to personify one specific actor in the context of the simulation instance.
The resulting architecture will be used to simulate the emergency management situation of the Alqueva Dam Break.