A 3D virtual geographic environment for flood representation towards risk communication

TL;DR

This paper introduces a 3D virtual environment for flood visualization that enhances risk communication by making flood data more understandable for non-experts, using rapid modeling and visualization techniques.

Contribution

It presents an integrated pipeline combining flood modeling, parallel computation, and 3D visualization to improve flood risk communication and accessibility.

Findings

Flood modeling and 3D visualization completed within hours

Parallel computation achieved a speedup ratio of 6.45

Enhanced understanding of flood spatiotemporal processes for non-experts

Abstract

Risk communication seeks to develop a shared understanding of disaster among stakeholders, thereby amplifying public awareness and empowering them to respond more effectively to emergencies. However, existing studies have overemphasized specialized numerical modelling, making the professional output challenging to understand and use by non-research stakeholders. In this context, this article proposes a 3D virtual geographic environment for flood representation towards risk communication, which integrates flood modelling, parallel computation, and 3D representation in a pipeline. Finally, a section of the Rhine River in Bonn, Germany, is selected for experiment analysis. The experimental results show that the proposed approach is capable of flood modelling and 3D representation within a few hours, the parallel speedup ratio reached 6.45. The intuitive flood scene with 3D city models is beneficial for promoting flood risk communication and is particularly helpful for participants without direct experience of floods to understand its spatiotemporal process. It also can be embedded in the Geospatial Infrastructure Management Ecosystem (GeoIME) cloud application for intelligent flood systems.