Development of flood alert application in Mushim stream watershed Korea

Korea repeatedly experiences flash floods and droughts that cause traumatic environmental conditions with huge economic impact. Recently due to climate change, the frequency and magnitude of natural disasters associated with extreme hydrologic events increased rapidly in Korea. Floods caused the greatest damage among all natural disasters. To prevent this damage it is important to inform people about ongoing and upcoming flash flood events to avoid the loss of life and property. In this study hardware and software based smart technology is used to develop an early flood warning system for Mushim stream watershed to send to end users early flood warning messages about potentially impacted areas. Hydrologic Engineering Center's Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) is the core of flood alert application provides the forecast with sufficient lead time and decides the threshold conditions of runoff/stage. Short range weather forecasts from Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA) at every three hours interval, are stored in hydro-meteorological database and fed in HEC-HMS for identification of flood risks. Server-Client based program used to visualize the real time flood condition and to deliver the early warning message. The findings of this study are expected to be used as basic data required for designing of flood mitigation measures at Mushim stream watershed to cope with the flash flood events in future. The flood hazard maps thus developed will be useful to policy-makers and responsible authorities, as well as to local residents in finding suitable measures for reducing flood risk in the study area.